Committee formed to study wages of TN spinning mill employees

Chennai, June 19 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government today announced the constitution of a five-member committee to study the wage structure and workload of employees of the State cooperative spinning mills and submit a report to the Government by October 31. The committee, headed by the Handloom Commissioner, would hold talks with the representatives of seven trade unions, an official release here said.

It said that of the 18 cooperative spinning mills in the State, only five were functioning and they too were facing problems because of frequent agitations by the workers over wage settlement.

To prevent these mills from being rendered sick, State Handloom Minister N K P P Raja held talks with the representatives of seven trade unions, including the Labour Progressive Front, CITU, INTUC and AITUC and decided to constitute a committee, the release said.

After the expiry of the wage settlement in 1998, no fresh wage agreement could be reached through negotiations and the matter was referred to the special industrial tribunal in 2001, it said.

During the pendency of the case in the tribunal, the workers were paid interim relief by the mills themselves, but the workers often resorted to agitations, disrupting normal functioning and affecting productivity, the release said.

It was in this backdrop that the Minister convened the meeting with trade union representatives and decided to constitute the committee, the release added.

UNI