Arvind Effect: Gujarat mill-workers demand wages at par

Though the a final application from the mills

regarding revised wage rates is yet to reach the textiles department, Ashima, Asarwa, Soma and other mill-workers from Gujarat are demanding a wage-hike similar to that of Arvind’s workers. According to M V Jadeja, Deputy Labour Commissioner, they are waiting for textile mills and workers to arrive at a consensus over wage-rates. So far, only Arvind has registered its wages with the department. After a recent month long strike over wage-hike issue, Arvind gave into the demand of mill workers by increasing the monthly wage-package by Rs 1,935, whereas other mill-workers in question got a hike of Rs 1,750 a month. So these mill workers are seeking a wage-hike similar to Arvind.

At the same time, AMMU protested against the uneven wage hikes across mills in the city a few weeks ago. Following this, the labour department has sought an explanation from Ashima, Asarwa and Soma textile mills.

Arvind’s Q1 results were affected due to labour agitation at its Naroda plant. It recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 32 crores in the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, as compared to Rs 61 crores in corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal. While releasing the quarterly results, Jayesh Shah, Director and CFO had said in a statement that we had an abnormal situation due to the strike in two of our plants and hence it will not be appropriate to compare these results with that of previous year.