Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appealed to the
Government of Tamil Nadu to include textile units under continuous process
industry and allow these units to operate uninterrupted during the lockdown
period.
The Government of Tamil Nadu on April 18, 2021 has imposed certain
restrictions with effect from April 20, 2021 to curb the second wave of
COVID-19 including 10 pm to 4 am time restrictions and lockdown on Sundays. The
textile industry, which is a labour intensive one, has recently limbed back to
normalcy consequent to the efforts taken by Government of India under “Aatmanirbhar
Bharat†and other COVID-19 relief measures.
Further, the textile units incurred huge expenditure to bring back the
workers from various States, who left for their hometowns following countrywide
lockdown last year.
In a Press statement issued by Southern India Mills’ Association
(SIMA), Ashwin Chandran, Chairman, SIMA, has appreciated the efforts and
initiatives taken by the Tamil Nadu Government in curbing the spread of
COVID-19 pandemic. However, he expressed
his concern over the decision of stopping of industrial units during night
hours between 10 pm and 4.00 am, and on Sundays. He stated that only recently
the textile units resumed normalcy in production and in all other aspects. In
such a situation, stopping the units during night hours and on Sundays would
affect the production activities, exports and also the jobs of several lakhs of
workers.
SIMA Chief has stated that the textile industry has to work 24 x 7
across the value chain especially in the case of spinning, weaving, knitting,
processing and vertically integrated units and the shift timings are normally
from 7 am to 3 pm, 3 pm to 11 pm and 11 pm to 7 am. He has stated that the textile employee mobility
will be normally between 10 pm and 1 am for the third shift employees to report
for work and the second shift employees to return home after completing the
work at 11 pm.
Ashwin Chandran has stated that time restrictions between 10 pm and
4 am and lockdown on Sundays would curtail 2/3rd of the production as the
manufacturing units would be in a position to work only in one shift for six
days in a week and had to stop production for two shifts and also on Sundays.
He stated that this would make over 75% of the workers jobless that would have
severe impact on the industry and livelihood of the people. He stated that the
industry is taking all care to adopt SOPs and also vaccinating the employees of
age 45 years and above on a fast track and therefore, such restrictions are not
required for the manufacturing activities.
Ashwin Chandran has stated that most of the textiles and clothing
manufacturing segments viz., yarn manufacturing, fabric manufacturing, fabric
bleaching / dyeing / printing and finishing involve sequence of processes at
each segment and they are continuous in nature. He stated that any stoppage
would amount to huge loss, as the material on the machine and machinery
condition might get affected apart from involving huge manpower loss.
SIMA Chairman, therefore, has appealed to the Government of Tamil
Nadu to include spinning, weaving, knitting, processing and vertically
integrated textile units under continuous process industry category and permit
them to run between 10 pm and 4 am and allow the managements and the employees
to use their transport facilities to operate in the night shifts and work on
Sundays also by strictly adhering to the SOPs prescribed by the Government.