Factory lays off 1,300 Employees just in Minutes!

One of the factories of Euro Clothing Company in Srirangapatna, a town in Mandya district of Karnataka closed at around 5:30 pm on Saturday evening and made an announcement that workers in the secondary factory of the company is going to lay off employees. They also announced that workers will only get half of their wages and the factory is going to be closed. 

The factory is affiliated to a major exporter Gokaldas Exports Ltd. in Karnataka. the factory was established in July 2010 in Mandya. It manufactures clothes of leading Indian as well as foreign brands. There are around 1,300 employees working in the unit. The factory had earlier removed machinery but had not given any notice about Layoff.

“At 5:40 pm, when half of the workers were outside the factory and the other half was inside getting ready to leave, a notice was stuck and announcements were made on a mic stating that we were being laid off. It came without warning,” one of the workers told The News Minute.

A notice signed by the factory manager stated that "the management of the company has decided to lay off the workers at Srirangapatna plant with effect from June 8, 2020, in the interest of the plant and also to save the employment of the workmen."

"The adverse circumstances prevailing in India, as well as the countries where overseas buyers are located, has resulted in overseas buyers cancelling their orders or withdrawing their orders and there is uncertainty about the market conditions. All these factors have cumulatively resulted in the inability of the company to provide employment to the workmen on the rolls, for want of orders to undertake manufacturing activities at the plant," the notice added.

According to labour activists, this layoff violates section 25M of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

According to The News Minute’s report, even the Tehsildar of Nagamanagala was not aware of the decision. The Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) has reportedly sent letters to the Labour Department in the state when the company removed machinery from the factory last week. 

As per media reports, protesting workers dispersed after Roopa MV, Tehsildar of Nagamangala, reached the factory and assured them of mediating a discussion with factory officials on Monday.