Reports from different plywood and laminates manufacturing clusters indicate that the present exodus of labour force is unpredictable. They said that the labour would hardly stay in factories for another 2-3 months once lockdown period would be over. Contractors from different manufacturing clusters shared with The Ply Reporter correspondent that the manufacturing establishments would run at 25-30% capacity till July because of labour crisis. They reasoned that migrant labours from Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar and UP will not be back to work due to fear of COVID-19 pandemic and the manufacturing units would have to manage their work with local labours.
As per reports from Yamunanagar, Punjab, Kerala, and Gandhidham plywood manufacturing clusters, it is said that 60-70% of migrant labours have been staying in factories because they were unable to find trains and buses to go to their home after the announcement of lockdown. Around 25% migrant labours have been staying in manufacturing units located in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, West Bengal and North- East, and rest had managed to go their home because they belonged to same or neighboring states.
Contractors say that migrant labours keep going their home every year during April-May-June months for harvesting and marriage season. However, this time around the situation is different for there is fear of life; their family members are forcing them to come home as soon possible. Central and state governments have been offering free ration, free gas cylinder booking, direct cash transfer in their bank account, etc, to help them in difficult scenario. Contractors say that in the present scenario, the labours wouldn’t die of starving at their native places; they can easily manage their livelihood for another 3-4 months. Hence it would be difficult to bring them back to work after normalcy sets in. It is expected that around 50% migrant workers would back to work before October and that their wages would have to be increased from the present level.
Given the mass exodus of workforce, it is evident that the operational cost in the plywood and laminates industry will increase in future and the industry should look and adopt more automation in their manufacturing units.