Figure 6.6: Trend in wages by social category, 2020

In the pre-pandemic period itself, Dalit garment workers, including those in our sample, were earning significantly lower than workers from other communities (Figure 6.6). They faced bigotry at multiple fronts as they were:

• Concentrated in the most poorly paid and hazardous jobs in the garment and textile industry, with many garment factories hiring Dalits from the most historically stigmatised communities for only janitorial work like cleaning cotton waste from factory floors, cleaning toilets, etc.

• Relegated to poorer working conditions than non-Dalits including lower wages, longer working hours and higher chances of sexual harassment.

• Discriminated against promotion or being considered for higher positions in the industry.

• Discriminated against services provided by employers including access to social security, employer provided housing and trainings.

• This systemic discrimination against Dalits was accentuated during the Covid-19 lockdown period in terms of wage theft, with Dalit workers facing the highest fall in wages when compared to every other social category. While the wages of

OBC workers dipped by 55%, and General category workers by 57%, the wages of SC workers dipped by 79%.

However, while the wages of SC workers climbed to almost pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2020, the wages of General and OBC workers remained below prepandemic levels. This is because the latter are concentrated in tailoring roles where they depend significantly on overtime pay which was now reduced due to low orders from brands in 2020.

Figure 6.6: Trend in wages by social category, 2020

150 General OBC SC/Dalit ST

D l Wa ges in US hy Mont

120

90

60

30

0

January-February March-May November-DecemberJune-October

Source : Primary data, n = 433

Contract And Casual Labour Worst Affected By Covid-19

“My contractor did not even pay me for days I worked in March. He switched off his phone and disappeared. My family was left starving with no work or money for two months. We took 10,000 INR (135 USD) as debt from a money lender at 10% interest. We ate only rice porridge for two months.”

- Ashok, a contract worker at a Walmart supplier factory in Tirupur

For this survey, garment workers in India are broadly divided into three categories in terms of contract type, namely:

Permanent workers: Workers who are directly employed by the factory, receive a monthly wage (generally directly deposited to their bank account) and have access to social security benefits including Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Employees State Insurance (ESI) and Gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act (1972). However, these workers may or may not have a contract.

Contract workers: These are workers who receive a monthly wage but do not have access to any form of social security and are employed by a factory generally through a contractor for a fixed time period ranging between 1-2 years. These workers do not generally have a contract.

Casual workers: These are daily wage workers, who do not have access to any form of social security and are employed by a factory either directly or through a contractor. While most casual workers are engaged only for short periods of time, all workers sampled in this survey have worked for at least one year in the given factory. These workers do not generally have a contract.

• All contract workers surveyed stated that they received no wages in the months of April and May, 2020.

In the pre-pandemic period itself there was a gap between the monthly wages of permanent workers and contract workers, despite both categories of workers being engaged in similar tasks (mainly as tailors) and working for almost the same hours (Figure 6.7). The wages of casual workers were much lower than workers in the other two categories in the pre-pandemic period itself as they were engaged in more poorly paid jobs including as cleaners, who remove cotton waste from factory floors.