Apropos of the article UK retailers take shirt off Bangalore sweat shops (September 4), I was surprised at this heading, especially the word ‘sweat shop’ which has negative connotations. We have been in the apparel export business for several decades and we follow the Minimum Wage Act and other Labour Acts meticulously. We work with world’s top brands and each of these retailers have a compliance team that visits our factories.
As mentioned about the suicide case in our factory seven months ago, the reporter has rightly mentioned that the person worked only for 19 days in the factory, and thereafter two investigation groups, one consisting of union leaders and the other, a women’s redressal group, visited the factory. Both these committees gave a finding that the woman committed suicide due to domestic problems. Before working with us for 19 days she had worked in three other factories for eight months and her husband has been in jail for the past two years. She received a phone call on her cellphone that her children were thrown out of the house by her family members and that was presumably the reason she took this acute step.
Rajendra J. Hinduja
Bangalore
Rajendra J. Hinduja
Bangalore
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