Article by Sumit Ghosh
According to the Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles of the Government of West Bengal, there are 18,500 hosiery units in the state [1]. In our state, large hosiery units outsource some work to smaller units. Then, the smaller units mostly employ workers on a piece-rate basis [2]. Thousands of workers are employed in the hosiery industry of Kolkata and its surrounding areas [3]. Besides, there are hosiery units also in the North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia and East Midnapore [4]. Some of the prominent factory owners of the hosiery industry include Ashok Todi, K.B. Agarwal, Sanjay Kumar Jain, Alamgir Fakir etc [5]. To protect themselves from the rights movements of the trade unions and to pave the way for unbridled exploitation of the workers, the employers have moved out from different areas of the city and have set up small units in the suburbs. All these places and many large manufacturing units scattered elsewhere in the state do not have strong trade unions. As a result, it is needless to talk about the plight of the concerned workers. Companies like Rupa, Lux, Dollar and Bangalakshmi have around 21 small scale units operating across the city of Kolkata. The main purpose of opening such small units is tax evasion [4]. It may be noted that although this state has a long and glorious history of labor movement, currently only 10% of the workers in the hosiery industry are associated with the trade union movement in some specific regions.
The state has a glorious history of workers’ movement in the hosiery industry. Hosiery workers went on strike in 1978 demanding implementation of the Minimum Wages Notification of 1976. After that, they went on strike for 144 days in 1984 demanding a hike in wages. This resulted in a monthly wage hike of ₹31.70 [6]. Wage revision was carried out in 1998. According to the government-employer-labor tripartite agreement signed at the Department of Labor that year, minimum wage, DA, identity cards were supposed to be provided, but workers in most factories remained deprived of their hard earned rights. In such cases, from the legal perspective, the employers were supposed to be fined but in practice nothing happened [3]. The outgoing government issued a notification to increase the wages of hosiery workers in 2010, but its implementation was delayed due to the turbulent political ambience. In 2012, the new state government implemented the notification, but since then they have not increased the ‘Basic Pay’ of the minimum wage. They want to avoid the anger of the workers by only increasing the ‘Cost of Living Allowance’. Thus, revision of minimum wage every 5 years has not been properly followed during the tenure of any government in this state.
The condition of textile mill workers in Nadia district is very deplorable. The number of temporary workers here is high. Permanent workers earn 4 times more wages than temporary workers for the same work [3]. About 25 thousand workers are working in about 2000 hosiery factories of Panshkura, Kolaghat, Shaheed Matangini, Nandakumar block and other areas of East Midnapore and a large number of them are women. Every year hosiery companies send 19% bonus during the autumn festival but the workers get only 9% bonus through the hands of the employers of the manufacturing units. In 2018, labor unions protested against this manipulation of the employer class. When they complained in writing to the then State Labor Minister Malay Ghatak and Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi, a tripartite meeting was arranged with the additional labor inspector, employers and workers’ organizations of East Midnapore district, but the employers’ organization, Bengal Hosiery Tailor’s Association, informed that they could only pay bonus at the rate of 9.75%. [7]. Despite the unshakable attitude of the employers, the workers protested against their bonus manipulation.
When the GST system was introduced in 2017, the GST rate was 12% on clothes having prices greater than ₹1,000 and 5% on clothes costing less than that. Later, in a GST Council meeting, it was decided to increase the tax rate to 12% on clothes and hosiery items costing less than ₹1,000, as a result of which there was fear that the ready-made clothing and hosiery industry across the country would face a crisis. Other than the 25% hike due to increase in the price of raw materials, a further 7% increase in apparel prices was likely due to the new GST regime. The GST system, which protects the interests of the big monopolies, was likely to reduce the ability of the poor in buying clothes, thereby resulting in loss of business for small manufacturing units in the hosiery industry and the loss of jobs of many workers [5]. Although the GST Council took steps to suspend its own decision in 2022, there is fear that similar anti-people decisions will be taken again in the future.
The owners of the hosiery industry withheld the wages of the workers for months on the pretext of halted production during the lockdown. The state government did not take any administrative action even though various labor organizations complained to the labor department [4]. Even though they were entitled to wages according to the Disaster Management Act 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, during the lockdown many workers were deprived of their wages and even had to sell vegetables, fruits etc for their living. Dollar, Rupa, Lux, Raju, Kothari and P3 have deprived workers of the knitting, threading and dyeing units of their wages during this period. However, at the same time, they have not spared the cost of promoting their brands in the media [4].
The spread of contract system on the basis of piece rates has led to a huge increase of unorganized labor in the hosiery industry as a whole. They have no rights, no social security, no appointment letter and are fired if they protest against the owner! Where there are trade unions, such oppression of the workers may not be of a high scale, but the hosiery workers in large parts of the state are exploited by the owners due to the limited pervasion of the trade union movement.
There is no protection of the workers in the workplace. In 2021, when 4 workers died in a fire at Lux’s Bilkanda unit, the concerned authorities refused to compensate their families [4]. Women are also deprived of many social rights. They do not always get leave even on festival days. They have no separate toilets, no maternity allowance. Many of the workers in the bleaching and dyeing department suffer from asthma. They need special medical allowance. Many a times the PF money is deducted from the wages of the workers but the employers do not submit it to the PF authorities. What is noticeable in the midst of all these manipulations is that the profits of the owners continue to increase. In 2020-21, Rupa and Lux’s profits increased by nearly ₹100 crore compared to the lockdown period of 2019-20 [2]!
At present 6 hosiery workers’ unions are fighting by staging a ‘Joint Action Committee’. In their joint leaflet, they have demanded: the central government should immediately repeal the anti-worker labor codes; the monthly minimum wage of ₹10,763 announced by the state government in 2023 must be paid to all workers, be it permanent, temporary, contractual or piece rate based workers of the knitting, bleaching-dyeing, cutting and stitching departments; Tailors’ Association, the employers’ organization in the sewing sector, should modify the old 2018 minimum wage based rate chart still in force; overtime wages must be paid at double rate for work exceeding 8 hours; workers engaged in mending should be paid chart based wages; DA should be paid to workers in the cutting department; production norms should not be linked with the minimum wage; pension of ₹10,000 should be given to PF eligible workers after their retirement; workers of all departments should be paid bonus at 20% rate 15 days before the commencement of autumn festival.
Workers in the hosiery industry have been participating in national labor strikes even in the face of aggressive anti-labor attacks by the central and state governments. On one side is the central government’s labor code and on the other is the state government’s prohibition of strikes. In Kolkata’s Shobhabazar area, the employers are found roaming around with the leaders of the ruling party and trying to suppress the labor movement by establishing Gundaraj in the area. Besides, the current ruling party of the state has recognized an organization of the owners under its own banner!
Hosiery Workers’ Unity Center is a leading militant organization of hosiery workers. A few observations of the Hosiery Workers’ Unity Centre about the struggle of the workers of the hosiery industry: (1) In 2012, the state government revised the ‘Basic Pay’ of the minimum wages. Since then, only the ‘Cost of Living Allowance’ has been amended by the state government in the face of repeated protests by the workers. The basic pay of the minimum wage has to be revised based on the consumer price index in the context of hike in the prices of essential commodities due to the current inflation. (2) To prevent the increase of unorganized workers in the hosiery industry, all workers should be given permanent appointment letters and photo identity cards. Salary notebooks and attendance notebooks should be arranged. (3) Rate chart of the cutting and knitting department should be revised on the basis of government-employer-labor tripartite discussion. (4) Since the implementation of ‘The Industrial Relations Code 2020’ requires a minimum of 20 workers in areas where electricity is consumed, hosiery units employ 10-12 workers to avoid the heckle of minimum wages, retirement allowance, PF, gratuity etc.! Besides, there are women workers engaged in mending who work from home. They are also neglected by these new labor laws. Hence, the central government should immediately withdraw the labor codes.
Photo Courtesy: https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-06/bengal%20hoisery2.jpg?itok=uP8E9-9f
References:
- Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles (MSME & T) – Government of West Bengal
- West Bengal: Hosiery Worker Unions to Jointly Launch Stir for Minimum Wages, Other Benefits- Sandip Chakraborty; June 30, 2022; newsclick
- Kivabe Din Katche Sromikder– Biswajit Hazra; September, 2010; Sramikshakti
- Hosiery Workers Struggle to Live Without Pay During West Bengal Lockdown –Sandip Chakraborty; June 21, 2021; newsclick
- GST har briddhite bostro shilpe kkhotir ashongka, Banglae bekar hoben ek lokkho; October 29, 2021, Bartaman Patrika
- West Bengal’s hosiery industry and workers face challenging future after 144-day strike –Indranil Banerjee; July 31, 1984; indiatoday.in
- Bonus onischit Hosiery Sromikder; October 13, 2018; Anandabazar Patrika
[Sumit Ghosh is an activist and member of Diligent magazine and Center for Social Activism.]