Tirupur textile units face sudden labour crisis post cyclone

 In the already labour starved textile industry, the shortage of skilled manpower has deepened further as most of the workers from cyclone ravaged districts have left for their hometowns to be with their near and dear ones.

“Almost 25 per cent of labourers from delta districts account for the existing total workforce in textile units across Tirupur.  They have all left for their homes in view of the cyclone and they may not come back, most likely until the affected regions attain normalcy,” said Raja M Shanmugham, president, Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA).

He further said that the sudden labour shortage has become a tough challenge for the textile units to handle. “There is no other choice, but the existing labourers are working overtime to execute the orders. Yet the units may be forced to buy time from traders if orders are not executed on scheduled time. This may give our competing countries an edge over us,” he added.

Generally, daily wage labourers working on ‘piece rate’ go on long leave during Deepavali. This time around, most workers, especially from districts like Madurai, Theni and Cumbum have not returned to work after the festival. They have stayed back to take care of their farms as good rainfall this time has brightened their agricultural prospects. 

“Besides their absence, cyclone Gaja has further deepened labour crisis. Usually, five per cent of daily wagers do not return after Deepavali, but due to the cyclone, more than 20 per cent have not reported back to duty this time. A segment of workers used to return after harvesting crops for Pongal. However, we are keeping our fingers crossed this time due to cyclone devastation,” said GS Babuji, general secretary, Seconds Collar Shirts and Inner Wears Small Scale Manufacturers Association (SISMA). 

Lamenting that the units couldn’t perform to their full capacity due to labour shortage, the textile traders are worried over increasing productivity to tackle demand for New Year. However, the textile units share the common opinion that their orders have declined considerably post GST and demonetisation.

There are about 2,500 small-scale knitwear units employing over one lakh labourers directly in ancillary units like screen printing, embroidering, dyeing, bleaching and printing in the district. From Tirupur, the exports stood at Rs 24,000 crore during the financial year 2017-18 and Rs 26,000 crore during the same corresponding year from 2016-17.