A Case Study in Living Wage Implementation
Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu is a major knitwear-producing city in Southern India with a long history of tense relations between the key stakeholders for wage issues—government, employers, and unions. Diverse modes of employment, complex and discordant reporting requirements, and widespread legal uncertainty have kept wages in Tiruppur far below those required for a decent standard of living. This is despite an official commitment from Tiruppur’s earliest minimum wage law, passed in the 1940s, which envisioned a living wage for all workers in the city.
The wage situation in Tiruppur is important for SAI as a key manufacturing hub in India and the location of about 250 SA8000®-certified facilities. In 2016, SAI launched an initiative to convene stakeholders in Tiruppur with a goal to facilitate collaborative solutions to advance the standard of living for all workers in the region. The project brings together representatives from government, industry, unions, and civil society for multi-stakeholder consultations that identify practical steps towards achieving the ambitious long-term goal of a living wage for all workers in Tiruppur.
Read the Case Study
SAI published a case study about this project on the website for the Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC). Visit their site to learn more.
