TN Textile Mills & Garment Factories Face Shortage Of Workers

Textile mills and garment factories in Tamil Nadu, which were hit by a steep drop in orders since the last two years, are now facing a new challenge which is shortage of workers.

With indications of revival of orders, the factories are slowly increasing production and hence are in need of more workers.

The Tamil Nadu textile and garment industry employs a large number of workers from various Indian states like Orissa.

“Wages had increased 20 percent for textile workers in Rajasthan and 28 percent in Odisha. There were reports that wages had increased in Maharashtra too,” K. Selvaraju, Secretary General of SIMA said.

“These workers are not likely to return to Tamil Nadu when they get higher wages in places nearer to their home state,” he added.

K Selvaraju said the textile units in Tamil Nadu should also consider paying higher wages to attract workers and providing them better facilities as some of the industries had already started doing so.

“Textile mills will have to focus on automation to overcome the labour issue,” J. Thulasidharan, President of the Indian Cotton Federation told the Hindu.

“Spinning machinery with a lot of automated processes are now available now and mills should look at investing in such machinery,” he too added.

A garment manufacturer in Tiruppur said several micro and small-scale factories moved out of business because of the drop in orders.

“The workers employed in these units had also shifted to other jobs or moved out of Tiruppur. There is now a huge demand for labour now across the garment supply chain,” he stated.

Sources in the industry said domestic demand was expected to pick up in a couple of months. This would mean need for more workers.

Shortage of workers could affect operations if the units do not start addressing the issue, they said.