Reframing the role of recruitment agents in Tamil Nadu’s textile sector

ETI is working with our members to address exploitative labour practices in Tamil Nadu’s garments and textiles sector, in particular those associated with the Sumangali scheme. Our programme aims to catalyse positive change within the industry through activities that empower young women workers, strengthen industrial relations, build community awareness and support legislative reform.

This is challenging and sensitive work, requiring a coordinated and multi-pronged approach to addressing entrenched issues within the sector. I am part of the local team, based in Coimbatore and working with a wide range of industry, NGO and trade union stakeholders. Our last blog focused on our work at mill-level, where we are engaging directly with workers and managers. With a project partner, we are delivering educational modules and leadership skill-building sessions to raise awareness of workers’ rights and foster open communication between workers and managers.

Here we turn our attention to the community outreach strand of our work, in particular our engagement with recruitment agents, who have a high degree of influence in this sector. We are working within eight different districts where young women are recruited to work in mills or garment factories. Our local NGO partners are educating potential, current and former workers on their employment rights, grievance redress and legal support services. Our aim is to raise awareness of relevant employment law and workplace rights among 40,000 young women.

This initiative responds to pressing concerns brought to light by NGO and media reports – that young women are recruited to work in the mills with the false promise of a good income and accommodation, but find a very different situation when they start work. While recruitment agents are not responsible for working conditions, they have a duty to be transparent in their recruitment practices, and can ultimately refuse to work with mills that don’t respect workers’ rights.

As part of our efforts, we held a half-day awareness raising event in the Dharmapuri district in late June, which was attended by recruitment agents (10 men and seven women). There were some initial challenges in encouraging the recruitment agents to take part. For many agents, this is the first time they have engaged with an ongoing programme to address issues around recruitment and employment practices. The agents had doubts over such an initiative, or being lectured to by NGOs. They also feared it would negatively impact on their relationships with the mills and garment factories. Our focus was to try and find a win-win approach, starting with reframing the role of ‘agent’ to ‘employment guides for young women’. The point being that in a situation where mills are struggling to recruit workers, the agents have a powerful role to represent the views of young women workers.

On average, the agents have been working for about eight years and have each recruited about 20 young women workers. They are aware of the challenges that the young women face in mills, but they continue to recruit because they get paid a commission and the young women’s parents demand employment for their daughters. The agents summarised some of the harsh conditions facing young women workers in the mills: severe limitations on their freedom of movement; deductions from salaries for medicines; no payments for working overtime; harsh treatment by supervisors and limited access to parents and the outside world. Even with awareness of these issues, they felt powerless to bring about any change.

Our event brought to light new insights into recruitment agents, and some of their very human responses to this situation. Some recruitment agents are also fathers of the young women workers –they can play multiple roles and be agents of change in this process. One agent reported:

“I referred around 30 young women to various mills in past 5 years working as an agent. The problem is that mills do not send young women home even if there is death in the family. They call me even 30 times when they want workers, but once they have been recruited, they do not respond to my calls even during emergency. The young women are not allowed to come out of the factory on their own. My daughter also worked in a mill and faced all these struggles, so I took her out."

When armed with the right information and support, these agents can in fact help catalyse wide-reaching change within this sector. Our event looked at the different roles that they could play:

• Build strong relationships with the mills and garment factories
• Ensure minimum wages are paid and other statutory benefits are included
• Advocate for young women workers being able to come home whenever required
• Act as liaison for the young women
• Play a key role in eradicating any instances of child labour

The participants said that there are about 150 recruitment agents operating within Dharmapuri district. They said that unless the majority of them are brought under this initiative, no major changes can be expected. Each of them has agreed to bring at least two more agents to the next meeting. Our aim will be to develop a critical mass of recruitment agents in this district. There is clearly a long way to go, but the first place to start is by reframing the issue. When recruitment agents are empowered, they can start to play a positive role in helping transform working conditions within Tamil Nadu’s garment sector.