TIRUPPUR: The shortage of overlock tailors is forcing garment unit owners to make lucrative offers to attract workers. The latest to join the bandwagon is one Kumar, who runs a unit near Karuvampalayam. With orders piling up, Kumar has promised a gold ring to overlock tailors who join his unit and stay with the company for at least eight to 10 months.
According to sources, such attractive announcements are made to recruit overlock tailors as they leave the units after a while due to job insecurity. The work depends on orders that the unit receives from bigger companies, and the workers, who are taken on a contract basis, are paid a weekly salary of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000. The chances of workers being terminated once the order is completed is very high, they added.
Kumar (40) put up posters in various places in the district offering a gold ring. Kumar, a native of Andipalayam in Tiruppur, said, “I have owned a garment unit near Karuvampalayam for several years. Earlier, I used to get orders from big companies, however, for the past several months, there is a scarcity of tailors in the district. This eventually began to affect my delivery of goods on time and those working too left the job for various reasons.”
Explaining the situation that made him come up with the decision, he said, “Recently, I got an order with a tight deadline, but I was in doubt as I had too few tailors to work on the project. Despite several promises such as weekly payments of up to Rs 6,000, no tailors showed up. I also got in touch with manpower agencies and got a few workers from other districts, but they left within three days. Unable to manage the labour crisis, I decided to put an attractive offer for workers. If the worker manages to work for at least 8 to 10 months, I will give them the gold ring in front of the entire staff.”
However, despite the offer, none has responded till now, Kumar worried.
It is to be recalled that a few weeks ago, a tailoring unit in PN Road offered two litres of petrol for overlock tailors arriving from distant villages from Tiruppur. Last year, another tailoring unit promised liquor to its workers which caused uproar in the industry. Later, the tailoring unit owner apologised for his announcement.
Who are overlock tailors?
Overlock tailors are a part of the Power Table Operators in the tailoring section unit. Since the stitching section is an important part of the textile and garment industry, these tailors are much in demand in Tiruppur. Sources said that since most of these tailors are provided with a weekly salary, they do not stick with the units.