Garment workers to get 32% wage hike

TIRUPUR: The year-long wage revision dispute was finally put to rest on Sunday, as the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), South Indian Imported Machine Knitters Association (SIMKA) and Knit Cloth Manufacturers Association (KNITcMA) agreed to implement a 32 per cent wage hike for its workers for the next four years, following fruitful talks at the District Collectorate on Sunday.Despite the fact that the previous wage revision agreement ceased to exist on December 31, 2011, the garment manufacturers’ associations deliberated on the new agreement for the past one year.Following the protest from labour unions, the garment associations began talks recently. After many rounds, the South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association accepted the 32 per cent hike proposal during talks at Coimbatore in the presence of labour department officials on January 30.Toeing the agreement, the Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association also implemented a 32 percent hike.However, TEA continued with the talks and only offered 20 percent wage hike. After the talks last Friday, the TEA, SIMKA and KNITcMA concurred to provide a 32 per cent hike. Of this, 20 per cent wage hike came into effect from January 2012 and every following year the workers will get an additional four percent hike. As per the agreement, DA and TA would be hiked by `7.50 and `5 respectively.