The Hindu : Front Page : Labour shortage affects industries in Erode

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 18, 2006
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Labour shortage affects industries in Erode

Karthik Madhavan

LABORIOUS TASK: Finding skilled labour has become an uphill task. - (File Photo)

ERODE: Garment exporter S. Sivananthan is a labour-challenged businessman.

Until recently, 40 per cent of his sewing machines did not see a tailor; only 60 machines were manned.

Today he is a trifle better, having managed to close ten per cent of the labour gap. Sewing up that gap was an uphill task in that he had to climb the Bargur hills, where he found some employees in Solaganae hamlet.

The plight of S. K. Rajeshwaran, a paver block manufacturer, is a bit different. He differs from Mr. Sivananthan only geographically. He went scouting around Orissa and Bihar for labourers and finally managed to find a few.

The reason? Businesspersons say there is not one answer to the question, and the shortage includes both blue and white-collar workers.

According to G. Sundaram, president, Erode District Small Industries Association (EEDISSIA), the blue-collar workers work only for their daily minimum requirement, after making which they are disinterested to earn more.

Citing the example of head load men, he says, "They earn their requirement within the first half of the day itself and in the second half are disinterested to work, though there is opportunity to earn more." To overcome the problem he has gone in for automation.

R. Mylsami, vice-president of the association, says the unskilled labour shortage has also got to do with labour migration. He sees the IT-driven booming construction industry as a reason behind the labour crunch. "With new and big buildings coming up in IT hubs, labour requirement is high, and is most often sourced from villages," he says. For Mr. Rajeshwaran it is upward social mobility that has made unskilled labour scarce. "Easy availability of educational loans have helped the poor access education easily and once educated they do not want to do blue-collar jobs."

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