BENGALURU: Garment workers are planning a campaign demanding that their wages to be hiked, something that has not happened in eight years, against the mandate of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
The Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) has demanded that the government increase salaries of garment workers, 80 per cent of whom are women. According to them, the workers have not had their wages revised since 2014, in contrast to the Minimum Wages Act, which mandates that minimum wages should be revised within five years of the previous revision.
“The state government had released a draft notification in 2018, increasing wages of garment workers, but had withdrawn the same after lobbying from garment unit owners. Workers are being paid only Rs 10,441, the lowest of any state in the country and the lowest for scheduled industry workers in the state,” said GATWU president Pratibha R. She said that following the withdrawal of the draft notification, the workers had approached the High Court and an order was issued, terming the government’s withdrawal as illegal and instructing the government to issue the final notification, increasing the wages of the workers.
According to GATWU, the workers are being paid one-third of what is supposed to be today’s minimum wage. “The Supreme Court, in the case of Reptakos Brett has given the formula to be used for fixing the minimum wages. Based on that, if calculated at today’s rates, the minimum wage should be fixed at Rs. 28,200,” the union stated.
According to the withdrawn order, the basic wage for the workers was hiked to Rs 445 a day, totally amounting to around Rs 14,000, taking into account Dearness Allowance. GATWU had also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Secretary and the Principal Labour Secretary to issue the final notification on November 28. As of next week, the workers plan to start a stir, protesting against the government’s failure to revise wages.