The Garment and Fashion Workers’ Union (GAFWU) protested outside the labour commissioner’s office in Chennai against the prolonged delay in the notification of the new minimum wage.

Under the Minimum Wages Act state governments in India are required to increase the minimum wage every five years.

However, for garment workers in Tamil Nadu this hasn’t been the case. The last time the Tamil Nadu state revised the minimum wage was in 2014, a decade late.

The increase was never implemented because more than 500 manufacturers took the matter to court, claiming that it would be practically impossible to pay the new wage.

“Garment workers in Tamil Nadu currently earn in the range of Rs 9,875 for the lowest category to Rs 10,514 per month for the highest category,” IndustriALL informed in a press release.

With the implementation of the new minimum wage, the monthly wage will range between Rs 15,211 and Rs 16,379.

In 2016, a court upheld the wage notification and ordered manufacturers to pay the revised wage immediately along with inflation-linked allowance and back wages from December 2014.

The new wage was yet again not implemented because manufacturers filed several suits at the Supreme Court.

When hearing the petition last year, the Supreme Court observed the state government’s inaction to revise the wages for the last nine years and directed the state to take corrective measures immediately.

Responding to protesting workers’ demands, the deputy labour commissioner assured workers that the wage would be determined in accordance with the draft notification of 2014, before the next Supreme Court hearing.

Indian Apparel.