more-in MADURAI The need for ensuring minimum wages for all the women employees working in garment factories and regularising their employment was stressed at the conference on ‘Securing living wages and decent work for female garment workers in Tamil Nadu’ here on Tuesday. The demands highlighted at the conference included minimum wages even for contractual workers and eliminating the disparity between salaries received by permanent and contractual employees as per the ‘equal pay for equal work’ principle. Citing the Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen) Act, the conference urged the government to ensure that all women who had worked for 480 days in a company in a period of two years be made as permanent employees. Pointing out the sexual harassment and exploitation faced by the women at their workplace, the conference highlighted that a majority of garment factories have not constituted Internal Complaints Committee as mandated by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act. The conference appealed to the government for repealing an order issued this year, which brought down the wages received by the workers at garment factories compared to what they were receiving in 2014. Demand was also made for deduction of contributions for Employees’ Provident Fund. A. Naseer Ahamed, Member-Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority, who inaugurated the conference, explained how affected workers can make use of TNSLA in getting their grievances redressed through legal means. The conference was jointly organised by TNSLA, Justice Shivaraj V. Patil Foundation, and ActionAid.

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