Give partial pay from ESI fund, footwear industry urges Centre

Tribune News Service

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Jhajjar, April 19

The footwear industry has been hit hard by the lockdown clamped to contain the spread of Covid. Factory owners say they are not in a position to pay wages to workers for the lockdown period and the Union Government should provide them succour to bail them out of the crisis.

The Confederation of Indian Footwear Industries (CIFI), a national body of footwear manufacturers, has urged the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to pay partial wages to their workers from the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) fund to assist them as well as workers.

The CIFI office-bearers raised the issue before Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Nitin Gadkari through video-conferencing on Saturday, urging him to accept their request to protect the footwear industry from more losses.

“The lockdown has affected the footwear industry as money is lying stuck in the market or in stocks. We are unable to pay wages and the situation will take time to normalise. We have urged the Union minister to provide help by using the ESI fund,” said Narendra Chhikara, CIFI senior vice-president.

“Every employer contributes 3.5 per cent of employees’ wages to the ESI fund, that is used to provide medical and other benefits to industrial workers. A total Rs 90,000 crore is available in the ESI fund, which can be used to pay partial wages. We are ready to compensate by contributing 1 per cent more as soon as the situation gets back to normal,” he stated.

Chhikara said half of the total production nationwide was done in Haryana and around 8 lakh workers were engaged in 800 footwear factories in Jhajjar, Sonepat and Karnal districts. Over 5 crore pairs of shoes, sandals and slippers were manufactured in a day across the nation, he added. it demanded electricity bills as per unit consumption during the lockdown period.