India - Garment factories to employ a full-time workforce

Tirupur's garment plants are ready to start production with all hands on deck on Monday. The workers, who had been out of work for several weeks, were overjoyed by the news.

The garment units, which had voluntarily shut down operations prior to the imposition of total lockdown due to the exponential spike in Covid-19 cases, were authorised to operate with a 25% staff beginning June 7 and a 50% workforce beginning June 21. As Tirupur continued to report a significant number of instances, full resumption of activities was prohibited.

In a recent decree, the state administration loosened the rules and enabled the export operations and their subsidiaries to operate with a 100 percent staff. The divisions have been instructed to ensure that employees wear face masks and keep social distance.