Labour shortages hit MSMEs in TN industrial estates

Growing job opportunities in information technology, retail and hospitality industries lure workers away

Twenty-three-year-old S Velmurugan drives his autorickshaw 50-60 km a day in and around Tirupur, carrying neither goods nor passengers, and still earns a daily net income of Rs 400-500. If you are wondering how he makes this money, it's simple. He goes to every village in and around the knitwear hub with a loudspeaker and a display banner, both of which advertise the message: "Workers needed".

This scene is common not only in Tirupur, but also across several other industrial estates in Tamil Nadu, which house micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Most say after power, labour shortages top the list of challenges for them. They blame the government-sponsored Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) and growing job opportunities in industries like information technology, retail and hospitality.

A Sakthivel, president, Tirupur Exporters Association, said the Tirupur industry, located around 450 km from Chennai, has started growing again since January, after reporting negative growth in the last three years. But labour shortage is expected to be a big obstacle. The association estimates that the industry requires 50,000-75,000 workers immediately, to meet market demand.

One leading exporter said that as IT companies, restaurants and retail outlets have come up less than an hour's drive from Tirupur, people prefer to work in an air-conditioned environment as lift operators, cleaners and helpers, rather than sit at a tailoring machine or work in a dyeing factory.

P S Ramesh, president of the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association (AIEMA), said owing to non-availability of skilled labour, units in the estate have to bring workers from rural areas. However, these workers are unwilling to relocate, since the cost of living in Ambattur is high. Ambattur, on the outskirts of Chennai, is one of the oldest industrial estates for engineering activities.

The attrition level in Ambattur is almost 80-85 per cent, said a representative of the estate. He attributed this to poaching by original equipment manufacturers that have come up in and around Chennai.

"Despite our offering 15-20 per cent higher salaries, they prefer to work in an IT company that may be our next-door neighbour, because they get air-conditioning, a uniform, an ID card around their necks and food," said Selvavinayagam, who runs a printing unit.

"We have become the training school for all big companies," said AIEMA representatives, who noted that the Oragadam automotive hub houses over 400 companies, most of whom have come up in the last three or four years.

This has triggered a labour crisis that has especially hit shop-floor operations, said a representative from the Guindy industrial estate, one of the oldest estates in the country, located within Chennai.