COVID-19 FEARS AS MOST TEXTILE FIRMS REOPEN

MATSAPHA – A majority of textile factories, including the major ones, have opened, but the employers fear the sector is yet to bear the brunt of COVID-19.

Some of the factories started operating on Monday and yesterday while others will open today. At the moment, most of the factories are operating on a short-term format. Currently, most of the factories which are operating have divided their workers into two shifts and each group works a day and is off the following day. This means that the workers will work five days per fortnight, instead of 10. On the other hand, in the smaller factories, like The Great Springs, which employs around 600 people, the workers work one shift, but for three days per week.

Today

Some of the major factories that have opened include Fashion International Eswatini, which has about 2 000 employees. Tex Ray Group Eswatini is expected to open its four sub-factories today. The sub-factories are Kasumi Apparels I and II, Golden Jubilee and TQM Textiles. The employers said even though they were hoping that things could go back to normal and be at 100 per cent production, they feared the worst was yet to be experienced in the sector. “This is because we, and the clothing industry in general, had been struggling economically even before the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19),” said one of the employers.

He made an example of some major shops which had already cancelled their orders as the retailers were given a lifeline about three years ago, but still there was no improvement. 
Furthermore, most of the factories were currently producing winter and children’s clothes because of the conditions of the level 4 lockdown in South Africa. Currently, clothing shops in South Africa are only allowed to sell winter clothes and those for children. According to the employers, this meant that their clients in SA only placed orders for winter and children’s clothes. They added that the orders were not enough to keep the companies operating normal hours with all staff members.

On that note, some of them said they were hoping to apply for extended layoffs. However, they said the challenge was that the Guidelines on Employment Contingency Measures in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Notice of 2020 (Under Regulations 32(10)), layoffs were only allowed during the state of emergency, which was about to elapse. 

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