<p>The Garment and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU) has condemned the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka">Karnataka</a> government’s latest <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/minimum-wage">minimum wage</a> notification, accusing it of gender discrimination and penalising millions of its poorest workers.</p>.<p>While the union welcomed the state’s decision to hike minimum wages for several sectors by up to 60 per cent, it lashed out at the government for intentionally excluding 19 major labour-intensive industries predominantly employing women from the immediate revision.</p>.<p>In a final official notification issued on May 22, 2026, the Department of Labour stated that the revision aimed to standardise minimum wage rates across scheduled employments to ensure equal minimum wages for all classes of workers.</p>.<p>However, GATWU has termed this claim a complete falsehood, pointing out that a special clause in the directive pushes lakhs of garment and textile workers to economic stagnation.</p>.Karnataka govt hikes minimum wages, Rs 23,300 must for unskilled work in Bengaluru.<p>The garment sector in Karnataka alone employs over four lakh workers nearly 80 per cent of whom are women. Currently, a garment worker in <br>Bengaluru earns a meager minimum wage of Rs 13,000 per month.</p>.<p>“The government has shown total negligence toward the most vulnerable workforce,” said Pratibha R, President of GATWU.</p>.<p>“The state boasts about women’s empowerment, but when it comes to fixing baseline legal wages, it is actively practising institutional gender discrimination.”</p>.<p>“Our workers are already earning 30% less than labourers in other manufacturing and commercial sectors. For the last 40 years, the garment industry has consistently faced injustice during wage revisions. Excluding us from this uniform hike while raising wages for others by 60% is both inhumane and deeply unjust,” she added.</p>.<p>GATWU has demanded that the Chief Minister and the Labour Department should immediately revoke the exemption clause and bring the garment sector, along with the other 18 sidelined industries, under the standardised uniform minimum wage revision without any further delay.</p>
<p>The Garment and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU) has condemned the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka">Karnataka</a> government’s latest <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/minimum-wage">minimum wage</a> notification, accusing it of gender discrimination and penalising millions of its poorest workers.</p>.<p>While the union welcomed the state’s decision to hike minimum wages for several sectors by up to 60 per cent, it lashed out at the government for intentionally excluding 19 major labour-intensive industries predominantly employing women from the immediate revision.</p>.<p>In a final official notification issued on May 22, 2026, the Department of Labour stated that the revision aimed to standardise minimum wage rates across scheduled employments to ensure equal minimum wages for all classes of workers.</p>.<p>However, GATWU has termed this claim a complete falsehood, pointing out that a special clause in the directive pushes lakhs of garment and textile workers to economic stagnation.</p>.Karnataka govt hikes minimum wages, Rs 23,300 must for unskilled work in Bengaluru.<p>The garment sector in Karnataka alone employs over four lakh workers nearly 80 per cent of whom are women. Currently, a garment worker in <br>Bengaluru earns a meager minimum wage of Rs 13,000 per month.</p>.<p>“The government has shown total negligence toward the most vulnerable workforce,” said Pratibha R, President of GATWU.</p>.<p>“The state boasts about women’s empowerment, but when it comes to fixing baseline legal wages, it is actively practising institutional gender discrimination.”</p>.<p>“Our workers are already earning 30% less than labourers in other manufacturing and commercial sectors. For the last 40 years, the garment industry has consistently faced injustice during wage revisions. Excluding us from this uniform hike while raising wages for others by 60% is both inhumane and deeply unjust,” she added.</p>.<p>GATWU has demanded that the Chief Minister and the Labour Department should immediately revoke the exemption clause and bring the garment sector, along with the other 18 sidelined industries, under the standardised uniform minimum wage revision without any further delay.</p>
