Garment firm jobs must be saved - Sactwu

31 Jul '10

2 min read

Early last week, the Southern African Clothing & Textile Worker's Union (Sactwu) called for an urgent meet with retailer Woolworths (WHL). They wanted to discuss the pending shut down of Intimate Apparel SA, a Cape Town-based innerwear and swimwear producer and an important domestic supplier to Woolworths.

Last week, textile and garment group, Seardel Investment Corporation (SER) had initiated shutting down of Intimate Apparel SA, a division of the group owing to incessant losses and resulting in to loss of 813 permanent jobs.

As per Sactwu, in case the shut down proceeds, it would have an adverse impact, considering the ongoing depressed economic situation and recent flow of job losses, which has witnessed job loss rise to its peak level in five years. Sactwu also pointed out the negative downstream consequences.

More so, the proposed shut down will witness job loss of 813 people, majority of who are women. Considering that every employee has atleast five dependents, income on which over 4,000 people depend will suddenly come to a stoppage.

Sactwu was currently waiting for Woolworths to reply for a meeting. They opine that retailers in general and Woolworths in particular can help prevent any more job losses.

Stuart Queen, CEO of Seardel, said that, last week, board of directors made a firm decision, subject to discussions and any feasible alternatives, to shut the affected division viewing margin pressures, which had eaten away selling prices and had made it impossible to recover the costs of raw material inputs, labour and other overheads.

Seardel has already commenced its discussion with Sactwu and is expecting that the affected division will be shut down by November 2010, end. Every attempt will be made to honour the orders on hand, informed Queen.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India