Power loom unit owners demand 50% hike in wages

Coimbatore: Representatives of the Coimbatore and Tirupur Job Working Power Loom Unit Owners’ Associations on Monday demanded a 50% hike in job working wages.
As per the labour department rules, job workers are entitled to wage revision every three years, but wages have not been revised since 2014, they said in a petition to the Coimbatore collector. “We require a 50% increase in wages to sustain till 2023. Master weavers pay us Rs 3 to Rs 5 per a metre of cloth we weave depending on the variety, thickness and length. We weave 50 to 60 varieties of clothes using power looms. The wages for those varieties also depend on thickness and measurements,” association treasurer E Boopathy said.
The wages should have been revised in 2017, the official said. “But they refused and blamed it on the bad economy. Also, the government did not push it further. Three years have passed. We now want wages relevant now and for the next couple of years,” said Boopathy. “We owners have to meet a lot of expenses like rent, electricity and wages for our labourers.”
There are more than 500 job working units in the Coimbatore-Tirupur belt spread across 110 villages, which produce 70 lakh metres of cloth on a daily basis. “We employ a large chunk of the two lakh-odd power loom weavers in the belt,” Boopathy said.
The unit owners said they conducted five rounds of talks with the labour department in the last three months.