The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Salary still eludes garment unit workers

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Sunday, Nov 01, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Salary still eludes garment unit workers

Special Correspondent

Management has sought time till November 6

Factory has been closed since October 7
The total wage and bonus dues is over Rs. 1 crore

Bangalore: The future of the workers of Konega International, who have been agitating round the clock before the factory in Peenya II Stage demanding salary arrears, continues to remain uncertain.

Till late on Saturday night, workers of the garment unit were still sitting on a dharna. Some of them had been admitted to a hospital on Friday for hypoglycaemia after their three-day hunger strike.

The factory owes the workers arrears to the tune of over Rs. 1 crore; while the salary arrears add up to Rs. 66 lakh, bonus arrears for two years add up to Rs. 36 lakh.

There is as yet no sign of their basic demands – that they be paid the salary for three months which is due to them.

“Since October 7, we have been camping before the factory,” said Gowri, one of the workers. It was on this day that the factory closed down without prior notice.

Workers of the factory told The Hindu that they were being paid a salary of Rs. 2,500 a month on an average, which is below the minimum wages as specified in the gazette notification made eight months ago.

As per the revised wages, the salary of a skilled tailor for a month of 26 working days at the rate of Rs. 128 a day adds up to Rs. 3,328 in Bangalore city.

While most garment workers are yet to get wages as per the revision, the plight of the agitating workers at Konegal International shows that getting any salary at all, revised or otherwise, is not assured.

Meanwhile, Deputy Labour Commissioner Sreenivas T. said that a case on the factory was pending before the Labour Department and the management had been served the final show-cause notice. “The management has sought time till November 6,” he said. He added that the top management of the company, based in Mumbai, had not been attending the negotiation meetings citing “threat to life” as the reason.

“This is nothing unusual for the department,” said Labour Minister B.N. Bache Gowda. “We will take action as per the Industrial Disputes Act.” He attributed problems to a “slump in the international export market.”

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