Textile mill staff go without pay for 6 months as five units remain shut

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: B Chitralekha, a labourer at the spinning and winding section of Vijayamohini Mills in the state capital, runs her family with her father’s old-age pension. She is among around 300 daily-wage employees of the mill who have not been paid for the past six months.At a time when the state government has announced advance bonus to all government employees for Onam despite the Covid-19 crisis, employees in the five textile mills, including Vijayamohini Mills, functioning in the state under the National Textile Corporation (NTC) are at the receiving end.

Reason: The units have remained shut since the declaration of the nationwide lockdown in March, and the employees now bear the brunt of the loss. While the daily-wage staff have not received a penny, the permanent staff are making do with reduced pay, some getting less than 50 per cent of their salary. For many, who are the sole breadwinners of their families, the situation is pathetic.As part of the protest against the government’s neglect of employees, the joint trade union of Vijayamohini Mills launched a strike in front of the mill at Thirumala in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. The employees demanded the reopening of mills at the earliest. 

They had sent petitions to the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment with little positive outcome. A majority of around 3,500 employees in the mills located in various districts are daily-wage labourers.“For the past six months, none of the daily-wage employees have received salary,” Chitralekha told TNIE. “My daily wage was I400-450. Now that income has stopped. I have two daughters who are students and my husband has lost his job. Hence, our family is managing with the small pension amount of my father.”She said some of the employees had approached the management seeking the reopening of the mill.

“The management said they are not in a position to reopen because of the rise in Covid-19 cases. We can’t go for other jobs as the job in the mill involves skilled labour. We demand that the mill starts functioning soon,” she said. According to B Rajeev Kumar, an employee of the winding section, he is getting only 38 per cent of the salary, which is insufficient to run his family.“At the Vijayamohini Mills alone, there are around 500 employees, including temporary staff. Permanent employees have suffered a salary cut of up to 50 per cent while the daily-wage labourers have no salaries. We had sent mass petitions to the Centre, but nothing happened,” he said. 

Last week, the employees of the five NTC unit mills wrote to the Union ministry seeking immediate intervention to restart operations. The NTC management had decided to shut down all mills on March 23, 2020, and cut 50 per cent of wages. This was in contradiction to a circular published by the Ministry of Labour and Employment which advised employers of public and private establishments not to terminate their casual or contractual workers.

INTUC district president V R Prathapan inaugurated the indefinite satyagraha in front of the Vijyamohini Mill on Thursday. CITU secretary M T Antony, INTUC secretary  Sajeev Kumar K and BMS secretary Shibukumar M S led the satyagraha on the first day. Johny S Nalappat presided over. CITU working president M Krishnan, R P Sivaji, K Krishnankutty, Puthanpally Nizara and Jythish Kumar spoke.