OCCUPATIONAL WAGE SURVEY SIXTH ROUND 2008

REPORT ON TEXTILE GARMENTS INDUSTRY

CHAPTER–I

 

INTRODUCTION

 

1.1    GENESIS OF THE SURVEY

 

From time to time, the Government of India has constituted various Commissions and Committees, viz., Royal Commission on Labour, U.P. Labour Enquiry Committee, Labour Investigation Committee and various wage fixing authorities to look into the subject of wage rates in the industrial sectors. Almost all such Commissions and Committees have critically commented on the absence and inadequacy of wage data for different occupations in the industries. Consequently, the need for reliable and accurate statistical data on occupational wage rates and earnings assumed greater importance in national planning for labour welfare.

 

     It was because of these limitations and deficiencies in the occupational wage data that in the Second five-year Plan, it was recommended that "urgent steps should be taken to undertake a Wage Census". The Steering Group on Wages set up by the Ministry of Labour and Employment made a similar recommendation.  In pursuance of these recommendations, the Labour Bureau conducted First Round of  Occupational Wage Survey (OWS) during 1958-59 covering 44 industries comprising 37 manufacturing, 4 mining and 3 plantation industries. The objectives of the survey were to provide both the basic data for building up Wage Rates Index for major manufacturing, mining and plantation industries and disseminate statistics relating to wage rates and average earnings of workers in different occupations in selected industries. The data disseminated through the conduct of Occupational Wage Survey is also used for building up and updating the weighting diagram of Wage Rate Indices being compiled by Labour Bureau on an annual basis.  As the results of the First Round of Occupational Wage Survey were found to be very useful by the Planning Commission, the Labour Bureau conducted Second Round of Occupational Wage Survey during 1963-65, more or less on similar lines, with the same objectives and coverage.

 

     The National Commission on Labour (1969) examined the data collected in previous two Rounds of Occupational Wage Survey and recommended the conduct of such type of surveys periodically by Labour Bureau.

 

     Consequently, the Labour Bureau took up the Third Round of Occupational Wage Survey in 1974-79 covering 81 industries and Fourth Round in 1985-92 covering 53 industries.  The Fifth Round was undertaken in 1993-2001 encompassing all the 53 selected industries covered in the Fourth Round.

 

The Sixth Round was taken up in 2002 and would consist 56 selected industries for the coverage (45 Manufacturing, 4 Mining, 3 Plantation and 4 Service Sectors). A list of 56 selected industries to be covered is given at Annexure–I.  The reports on four Service Sector Industries  (Electricity  Generation  & Distribution, Railways, Public Motor Transport and Ports & Docks), three Plantation Industries (Tea, Coffee and Rubber), one Tea Processing Industry and Four Mining Industries have already been released.  The present report relates to Textile Garments Industry.

 

1.2  OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEY

 

The main objectives of the survey are:

 

a.  To obtain occupation-wise data on employment, wage rates and dearness allowance for building up weighting diagram for Wage Rate Index Numbers; and

 

b.  To obtain data on different components of pay roll earnings for different occupations for scientific studies of inter-industry and intra-industry differentials in earnings in plantation, mining, manufacturing and service sector industries.

 

1.3    SELECTION OF INDUSTRIES

 

The selection of industries for the Sixth Round was based on the following criteria:

 

a.  That the industry belonged to the organized sector,

b.  That the industry had an importance in the National Economy; and

c.  That the industry has significant share of employment in the organized industrial sector.

 

Out of 56 industries to be covered under the 6th Round of OWS, 52 industries were selected using the above criteria. On the advice of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, four service sector industries viz., (i) Electricity Generation & Distribution, Railways, Public Motor Transport Undertaking and Ports & Docks which also formed a part of industries in compilation of Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial Workers released by Labour Bureau, were also included in the Sixth Round.

 

1.4    SCOPE AND COVERAGE

 

The scope of the Occupational Wage Survey for Textile Garments Industry extends to entire country except the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and the Union Territory of Lakshdweep.  The coverage of this survey extend to all Textile Garments Factories registered under Section 2 m (i) (i.e. establishments using power and employing 10 or more workers) and  2 m (ii) (i.e. establishments not using power and employing 20 or more workers) on any day of the preceding 12 months. 

 

The frame for the present survey is based on the frame of Textile Garments factories maintained by the CSO (I.S. Wing), Kolkata for the purpose of  Annual Survey of Industries (ASI). 

 

Occupation-wise wage data were collected only for those workers who conform to the definition of worker given in the Factories Act, 1948.  According to the definition a worker is 'A person employed directly or through any agency (including a contractor),  with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for wages or not, in any manufacturing process, or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for manufacturing process, or any other kind of work incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process'.

 

 The managerial, technical and clerical staff, even if covered by the Act, were excluded from the scope of the survey. However, those supervisory personnel whose duties, besides supervision, generally involve considerable element of manual work were covered.  Regular 'Badli' and Casual workers who had worked continuously for a period of at least one month preceding the reference date were also covered.  Contract workers working in the premises of the unit were also taken into consideration.  As per recommendations of the Study Group on Labour Statistics, part time workers and apprentices have also been included in the survey.

 

1.5    FIELD INVESTIGATION AND REFERENCE PERIOD

 

The field staff of the Bureau conducted the fieldwork for the survey from June, 2007 to September, 2007. The Economic Officers supervised the fieldwork of the field staff by visiting the sample units. Senior Officers also visited some of the sample units.

 

For conducting the Textile Garments Industry survey the reference date for the collection of data was fixed as 30th  April, 2007.  Wage period ending on the reference date or wherein the reference date fell was taken as the reference period for the collection of data under the survey.

 

1.6    COLLECTION OF DATA AND SCHEDULE

 

The data on employment, occupational wage rates, earnings, payment of dearness allowance etc. was collected from the sample units in the Schedule designed for the survey.  Data on employment, wage rates and earnings correspond to all manual workers in specific occupations in each case, while the data on dearness payment relates to all employees in the unit, as it is not occupation specific.  Data on pay roll earnings have been collected only for a sample of workers in each occupation in each sample unit. 

 

The Technical Committee on OWS constituted by the Ministry of Labour & Employment revised the OWS schedule in its first meeting held on 24th Jan., 2006.  A facsimile of the schedule used in the current Round of OWS is enclosed at Annexure-II.
 

1.7  SELECTION OF OCCUPATIONS

 

The list of occupations for the Textile Garments Industry was finalised on the basis of pilot survey conducted at Ludhiana and discussion with the unit level management at various places throughout the country during the course of field survey.  On these basis the lists of occupations including job descriptions of previous round were updated for the current round of Occupational Wage Survey.  The occupations thus listed accounted  for the bulk of the workforce in each sampled unit.  The occupations, which did not feature in the list but were listed in the sample units, were clubbed together and designated as the ‘Miscellaneous’ occupation.  The list of occupations along with the job description is presented in Annexure–III.

 

1.8    GEOGRAPHICAL STRATIFICATION

 

For the purpose of the survey, stratification of industries was done on the basis of areas of concentration of industry to reflect regional variations. Each area of high concentration, generally a State or a group of States was taken as a separate stratum of the industry. The geographical strata of the Textile Garments Industry are given below.

 

Industry

Name of the Stratum

Textile Garments

Industry

1.  Haryana

2.  Delhi

3.  Uttar Pradesh

4.  Maharashtra

5.  Karnataka

6.  Tamil Nadu

7.  Residual (A.P., Rajasthan, Gujarat, M.P., Kerala, Punjab, and Daman & Diu)

 

 

1.9    SAMPLING DESIGN AND ESTIMATION PROCEDURES

 

Details of the sample design and the estimation procedure have been presented in Annexure–IV. However, the following points merit attention:

 

a.  A two stage sampling design was adopted.  The selection of units was the first stage, whereas, the selection of the workers employed in different occupations in the selected units formed second stage.

 

b.  The sample was designed in such a way that the estimates did not differ from the true values by more than 5 per cent with confidence coefficient of 95 per cent.

 

c.  The first stage sample size was determined on the basis of the employment and coefficient of variance of the average maximum wage rates revealed by the earlier round of the survey. The formulae used for the determination of the sample size at the industry level is given below.

 

                   å Wi . Si2                         no

   no  =  -------------------   and   n  =  ------------

     [0.05 . Ÿ / 1.96]²               1  +  no/ N

 

   where,

 

N

=

Number of units in the frame

no

=

First approximation for the sample size

n

=

Required sample size

Wi

=

(Ni – 1)/(N – 1)  = Weight for the ith stratum

Ni

=

Number of units in the ith stratum in the frame

 

Si2

 

=

   1     Ni

-------- Σ (Yij – Ÿi)² = Variance of the ith stratum

 Ni – 1  j=1

Yij

=

Average maximum wage rate in the jth unit of the ith stratum

Ÿi

=

Mean of the average maximum wage rate in the ith stratum

 

d.  The sample size so determined was allocated in the strata in proportion of its share of units in the frame.

 

e.  The frame in each stratum was further divided into two size classes, viz. Upper Size Class and Lower Size Class on the basis of the average daily employment at the national level. While allocating the sample size in both the size classes in proportion of its frame size within a stratum, it was taken care that at least two units were selected in each size class.

 

f.  For the purpose of obtaining estimates in respect of the pay roll earnings of workers in each occupation, a predetermined sample of workers belonging to each category of sex/age and system of payment of wage was drawn from the selected units.

 

     The sample design and the estimation procedure recommended by the Central Statistical Organisation for Fifth Round of OWS has also been followed for the Sixth Round of OWS.

 

1.10 COVERAGE OF UNITS AND SAMPLE SIZE

 

Tables 1.1 shows the coverage of units and the sample size in selected Textile Garments Industry. A total of 1954 units constituted the overall frame for the Textile Garments Industry. Out of these, 128 units were selected in the sample. This accounted for 6.55 per cent of the total units in the frame. The sample size varied from 6.25 per cent each in Haryana and Delhi stratum to 7.44 per cent in Uttar Pradesh Stratum of the Textile Garments  Industry.

 

TABLE 1.1

 

COVERAGE OF UNITS AND PERCENTAGE SHARE OF UNITS IN

SAMPLE TO THE FRAME IN TEXTILE GARMENTS INDUSTRY

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Sl.   Stratum               Number of Units in       Percentage of

No.                       ------------------------   Units in Sample

                           Frame         Sample       to Frame

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1           2               3                4             5

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1    Haryana               144               9            6.25

 2    Delhi                 368              23            6.25

 3    Uttar Pradesh         121               9            7.44

 4    Maharashtra           245              17            6.94

 5    Karnataka             418              27            6.46

 6    Tamil Nadu            444              29            6.53

 7    Residual              214              14            6.54

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Textile Garments Industry  1954             128            6.55

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