International Journal of Human Resource

Management and Research (IJHRMR)

ISSN(P): 2249-6874; ISSN(E): 2249-7986
Vol. 5, Issue 3, Jun 2015, 1-14
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

FEMALE WORKERS ABSENTEEISM IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

MEHUL G.THAKKAR1, SUMIT N. PATEL2 & SNEHAL J. KAPADIA3
1

Associate Professor, Department of HRM & Uni. Placement Coordinator,

ASPEE Agribusiness Management Institute, NAU, Navsari, Gujarat, India

2

Assistant Manager (HR/P), Coal India Ltd, Bijuri, Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, India
3

Freelance HRD Trainer, Counsellor, Navsari, Gujarat, India

ABSTRACT
Absenteeism of the employee can be very much damaging for an organization in general and for labour oriented
industry like Textile in particular. Higher absenteeism is certainly a danger signal for the organization and it needs to be
analyzed with enough care and concern. This paper, through Communication Approach of Descriptive Cross Sectional
Research Design, attempts to find out major reasons for the higher absenteeism of female workers in selected textile units
by focusing on the demographic variables of age, education, marital status and experience. It also reviews the
organizational response to this daunting problem and the remedies. Attending social ceremony, family issues, own illness,
fatigue-boredom, work pressures and lack of awareness regarding the leave policy are found to be the major reasons/causes
of female workers absenteeism in textile industry. Ironically, in 86% cases of such unauthorized willful absenteeism, the
company management / HR is as such doing nothing except to give verbal warning ineffective enough to solve the issue.
Demographic variables of marital status and experience have been found to be associated with absenteeism tendencies of
female employees, whereas there is no association between age and absenteeism as well as between educational
qualification and absenteeism. Interestingly, the skilled workers are found to remain more absent followed by semiskilled
and unskilled. Based on the findings, the paper prescribes some important recommendations to effectively combat the
problem of higher absenteeism, which will be greatly useful even to other industries.

KEYWORDS: Absenteeism, Female Workers, HR Issue in Indian industries, Labour Oriented Industry, Textile Industry
INTRODUCTION
In todays ever competitive scenario, every organization needs to have competent, committed and motivated
people at all levels; as this people dimension can only be a long term competitive advantage for any organization. In fact,
people were always central to organizational prosperity, but their strategic importance has increased in this knowledge
based economy (Thakkar, 2012). As a result, more and more organizations are showing concern about attracting and
retaining the best talents the real assets the employees.
Even after having such a committed workforce, it is very much necessary that the employees are regularly
attending their workplace, willingly putting their best and be mutually beneficial to own self and to organization.
Employees presence at work place during the scheduled work time is very much essential for the smooth functioning of an
organization. Despite the significance of their presence, employees at times fail to report for work when they are
scheduled, that is, they remain absent sometimes planned and mostly unplanned and uninformed (Subba Rao, 2010). This
absenteeism has emerged as one of the major HR issue in Indian industries (Saiyadain, 2006), as it is the single most
important cause of lost labour time. Absenteeism is one of major human problem of Indian industries, so pervasive that it is
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Mehul G. Thakkar, Sumit N. Patel & Snehal J. Kapadia

a daunting issue even in the companies which are top in India (Rathod & Reddy, 2012).
Absenteeism generally refers to unscheduled and unauthorized employee absences from the workplace. Many
causes of absenteeism are legitimate - personal illness or family issues, for example - but absenteeism can often be traced
to other factors such as poor work environment or workers who are not committed to their jobs. If such absences become
excessive, they can have a serious adverse impact on a business's operations and, ultimately, its profitability. It would be
particularly disastrous for a labour oriented industry like Textile if it faces chronic absenteeism. So, the HR should keep a
close watch on the absenteeism rate within the company, compare it with the competitors and the industry and also take
remedial measures, if required.
The Absenteeism Rate an indication of how frequently employees remain absent from their work/job if higher,
is certainly a worry factor for the organization; as the absentee behaviour also affects the productivity ratings, as reported
by Indana & Khisty (1974) that the productivity ratings of regular workers were far better as compared to chronic
absentees.
A certain amount of absenteeism is, of course, unavoidable owing to reasons beyond ones control. However,
chronic absenteeism may signal deeper problems in the work environment (Snell & Bohlander, 2007), and demands for
remedial measures.
Conceptual Framework of Absenteeism
What do the employers mean when they face Absenteeism of employees at their establishments?
In general, there remains a substantial ambiguity about what the term Absenteeism amounts to. How employers
conceive the idea of Absenteeism matters because it is the prime, often the only source of information allowing
judgments to be made about where the shoe pinches i.e., locating the root cause of the problem.
According to Websters Dictionary, Absenteeism is the practices or habit of being an absence and an absentee is
one who habitually stays away.
The Labour Bureau of Shimla and Annual Surveys of Industries define Absenteeism as the failure of the worker
to report for work when he is scheduled to work. However the two agencies differ in the interpretation of the term
scheduled to work. The Labour Bureau does not regard absence from work due to authorized vacation, privilege leave,
strike, lockout, layoff, post-facto regularized period of over-stay following unauthorized leave as absenteeism (Saiyadain,
2006). Further, it does not matter whether or not such failure to report for work is excused. Scheduled vacations, holidays,
and prearranged leaves of absence are not counted as job absence.
The Department of Labour, Government of India defines Absenteeism as the total man-shifts lost because of
absences as a percentage of the total number of man shifts scheduled (Singh & Singhal, 1966). However, this definition
does not include absence on account of authorized leave, layoff, retrenchment, strikes etc. And this seems to be justified
also as the concerned employee has nothing to do with such absences it is not willing absence on his/her part.
Absenteeism is the term generally used to refer to unscheduled employee absences from the workplace. Absenteeism
occurs when employees who were scheduled for work do not attend (Huczynski & Fitzpatrick, 1989). Absenteeism
involves nonattendance from scheduled work in terms of hours and days rather than minutes (Adler & Golan, 1981).

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.2129

NAAS Rating: 3.25

Female Workers Absenteeism in Textile Industry

In empirical work, the concept of absenteeism has mostly been interpreted in terms of unauthorized absence from
work, that is, the work is available, the worker knows about it but fails to report for duty without any prior intimation to the
employer about such non-reporting.
Interestingly, the literature on absenteeism clearly draws line of demarcation between two closely associated
constructs namely absence and absenteeism. The term absence refers to all stay away from work whether authorized or
unauthorized while absenteeism refers to only unauthorized absence (Vaid, 1966). The two rates are calculated by using the
following methods:
Absence Rate = Authorized leave + Unauthorized leave * 100
Man-shifts actually worked
Absenteeism Rate = _______Unauthorized absence_______ * 100
Man-shifts actually worked
Although there is no universally accepted definition of absence or a standard formula for computing
absenteeism rates, the following method recommended by the U. S. Department of Labour is the most frequently used
one (Snell & Bohlander, 2007).
Absenteeism Rate = Number of worker days lost through job absences during period * 100
Average number of employees * Number of workdays
The investigation for causes of absenteeism can be at two levels. First, one can examine it at the macro level i.e.
country or national basis. Secondly, its causes can also be studied at the micro level i.e. in an organization or Industry.
Here, in this study, the absenteeism study is carried out at the organization level in Textile Industry by selecting 3 textile
units in South Gujarat region. The study tries to analyze the reasons for higher absenteeism rates among female employees
in textile industry and suggesting remedial measures for the same.
Types of Absenteeism
According to Subba Rao (2010), absenteeism can be of four types:

Authorized Absenteeism: With prior application for leave and approval of the authority.

Unauthorized Absenteeism: Without prior application for leave and/or approval of the authority.

Willful Absenteeism: Employee willingly remaining absent from duty.

Circumstantial/Situational Absenteeism: Employee remaining absent from duty due to circumstances beyond
control.
It is very clear that out of above four types of absenteeism, the unauthorized as well as willful absenteeism create

the real problem. In worst situations, the willful absenteeism is unauthorized also. With no prior application for leave, no
approval of the higher-ups; the employee remains absent on his/her own, not on the account of any
situational/environmental factors. Given the seriousness of this problem and its uncertainty, it is posing a big threat to the
HR managers to ensure smooth running of the production process.

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Many researchers have studied the issue of absenteeism among employees in different industries.
Vaid (1967) studied 50 chronic absentee workers the habitual absentees - from textile mills and classified them
into five categories as Entrepreneurs, Status Seeker, Epicureans, Family Oriented and Sick & Old. Here, the
Entrepreneurs were more interested in status, power, recognition and money; and the mill job was considered inferior to
meet all these ends. The Status Seeker enjoyed the ascribed status mostly gained through their extrovert, sociable and
vocal nature and were obsessed to maintain it by providing counseling to others, ignoring the fact that they themselves
require a good doze of counseling. The Epicurians were primarily concerned with physical comfort and pleasure. The
Family Oriented as the name itself implies were found to be excessively involved in family concerns and
consequently more withdrawn and disorganized. The Sick and Old category only had some justifiable reasons for staying
away from work on the ground of ill health, chronic illness and just old age.
A no. of research studies have focused on identifying the causes for absenteeism in India, with special emphasis
on analyzing the effects of demographic factors like age, experience, dependents, income, etc. on absenteeism behaviour.
These studies reveal the relationship between demographic factors and absenteeism behaviour as follows:
The demographic variables of Age, Years of Service, Education, Distance from Residence, Religion and Socioeconomic Status have no association with Absenteeism.
Normally, marital status and absenteeism are not found to be related (Naylor & Vincent, 1959); but interestingly,
the study of Koshal & Koshal (1973) revealed that single person remained less absent compared to married ones.
Normally, no association has been found between number of dependents and absenteeism, but Naylor & Vincent
(1959) and Sharma (1970) concluded that higher the no. of dependents, higher would be the absenteeism. This may be due
to increased responsibility and diverted attention to family issues of child care, education, marriage etc.
An increased element of sincerity among the females towards their responsibility at work is reported in the sense
that women remain far less absent than men (Koshal & Koshal, 1973). Even, the results of SSC, HSC, and many other
competitive exams from last couple of years also show a consistent trend of female students outperforming their male
counterparts.
Interestingly, a negative relationship between income and absenteeism was reported; wherein Pais (1981) showed
that absenteeism increased with increasing income. This may be because of preference for leisure and family concerns with
increasing income. Similar finding was voiced out way back by Hone (1968) when he commented that absenteeism seems
to be related to new values and norms which are developing among the workforce, wherein leisure is now cherished by the
worker, and he wants to enjoy along with monetary benefits he gets for his services. Economic consideration, therefore,
decides whether one would like to be absent from work.
A very interesting finding has been reported in the study of Sharma (1970) regarding the relationship between
attitude towards unionization and absenteeism. The study concluded that more regular workers showed relatively higher
interest in union activities. This is contrary to our popular misconception that the irregular and not-so-good workers are the
first ones to join unions and actively pursue the union activities.

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.2129

NAAS Rating: 3.25

Female Workers Absenteeism in Textile Industry

Sinha & Gupta (1974) emphasizing on the relationship between need satisfaction and absenteeism, reported that
workers who experienced greater need satisfaction seemed to be more regular. So, we can presume that higher the
perceived need satisfaction, lesser would be the absenteeism. Similar finding has been reported by Singhal (1976) that high
absentees were less satisfied on autonomy and actualization needs.
The study of Bhatia & Valecha (1978) reported interesting findings regarding the behavioral patterns of chronic
absentees. The chronic absentees are found to be taking more loans and advances, have higher sickness rate, visiting their
home towns more often and even sending money home. They also reported additional job/work related factors like lack of
awareness of leave-taking procedure, higher frequency of transfers and changes in assignments to be related to higher
absenteeism rate. The study also revealed that the greater the dependence on public transport, the higher was the
absenteeism.
The relationship between job/work related factors and absenteeism in Indian context was highlighted by Sinha &
Singh (1961) based on analysis of responses from 100 workers 50 having high absentee rate and 50 with low absentee
rate. The analysis revealed that workers with high absentee rate were less satisfied with the nature of work, supervisors and
supervision, and company policy. One similar study by Indana & Khisty (1974) found that 20 percent of the chronic
absentees did not have good relations with their supervisors as compared to regular workers. Interestingly, the findings of
both these studies are consistent with the famous content theory of motivation the 2-Factor theory of Frederick Herzberg.
All these reported factors have been termed as Hygieners by Herzberg, having no impact on satisfaction and motivation;
but certainly having the power to control negative behaviours like absenteeism.
Singhal (1976) found that participation in decision making also has an impact on absenteeism. The study
suggested that non-participating workers had higher absenteeism than the participating group, may be due to increased
feeling of alienation among the non-participating ones.
Steers & Rhodes (1978) model of employee attendance and absenteeism reported personal characteristics (e.g.,
education, tenure, age, sex, and family size), job satisfaction, organizational commitment, ability to attend circumstances
(e.g., illness, accidents, family responsibilities, transportation problems, etc.), and pressures to attend (e.g., reward and
incentive systems, work group norms, etc.) influenced employee absenteeism.
The study of Pais (1981) on Textile Industry in Bombay showed that the problem of absenteeism has become a
serious threat in textile industry with an upward trend from 19.05 per cent in 1966 to 21.6 per cent in 1978. Further, it was
found that textile being a labour oriented industry the higher accident rate textile mills faced greater absenteeism. This
seems to be obvious considering the fact that everyone wants physical as well as emotional security.
Vaid (1967) conducted a study on 150 workers and found that the chronic workers had far less information about
company, structure and its products as compared to regular. So, the organization should also focus on clarifying and
communicating the basic information of the company to all to create a sense of belongingness.
Chand & Prakash (1970), based on careful review of researches on absenteeism in India, concluded that inhuman
working and living conditions affect the workers health and morale resulting in absenteeism.
Nicholson & Goodge (1976) emphasized on the point that most of the time, research studies have treated the male
and female absenteeism as single undifferentiated phenomenon, but in reality, they must be studied separately.

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Mehul G. Thakkar, Sumit N. Patel & Snehal J. Kapadia

Another interesting finding reported by Nair (1981) was that absenteeism rate was high among skilled workers
than unskilled workers.
Ahmad & Saiyadain (2000) found that in Indian scenario, the distance from work place, alcoholism, risky and
monotonous work, unhelpful supervisors, and low job satisfaction were the most influential factors responsible for higher
absenteeism rate. Even the migrating character of Indian labour seems to be a major concern leading to high absenteeism.
With increased urbanization, the village community, glorified by the so-called prospects of the city-life; migrate to the
factory set-up. But even after spending a considerable period of their life in such setting; these migrated labour force
always shows an inner urge to go back to their natives. Many of them go back to work on their own agriculture land
leaving their work; some of them frequently remain absent at work, that too in groups, just to attend social and cultural
ceremonies and thereby take chances to meet their family members who are left behind in villages (Saiyadain, 2006).
Pfeifer (2010) while studying the impact of wages and job levels on worker absenteeism reported that relatively
better paid workers are absent less frequently.
Rathod & Reddy (2012), in their study of employee absenteeism at one of the renowned Indian company named
Titan Industry Limited at Banglore, identified that the major causes of employee absenteeism have been maladjustment
with the working conditions, social and religious ceremonies and poor welfare facilities. In the study of Barmase & Shukla
(2013) focused on indentifying the causes of employee absenteeism, several factors such as welfare facilities, salary, leave
policies, supervisors behavior, working conditions and transportation facility have been found to be influencing
absenteeism tendencies of todays employees. Vijay Kumar & Kolla (2014) in their very recent study covering 396
respondents identified that job satisfaction, relationship with others, working conditions, promotion, pay, and age are the
most influential factors of employee absenteeism in the IT industry.
Taking the discussion on a different frontier, Thakkar (2015) reported that if the perceived Quality of Work Life
(QWL) is low, it will lead to absenteeism, as fostering better QWL can greatly influence absenteeism tendencies among the
employees and positively affect their three primary work attitudes job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational
commitment.
In nutshell, a number of reasons/causes have been found affecting employee absenteeism in different industries. It
would be interesting to see the major reasons/causes of absenteeism rate among the female workers of selected textile units
under study.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Problem Formulation
The present study attempts to assess the major reasons/causes of absenteeism rate among the female workers of
selected textile units under study, the organizational response/reaction to higher absenteeism and suggest remedial
measures to combat the problem of higher absenteeism among the female workers of these textile units. The Operational
Definitions of various constructs used in this study are as follows:
Herein, the term Female Workers means the female workers working in the selected 3 textile undertakings.
Further, here, a female worker is taken to be a woman who is a regular employee and is not a badli or a casual
worker.

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.2129

NAAS Rating: 3.25

Female Workers Absenteeism in Textile Industry

Absenteeism denotes the unauthorized willful absence of the female worker at the work place when they are
scheduled for work.
Textile Industry includes the textile mills operating in the Surat District region. For the purpose of this study,
such 3 textile mills were selected for undertaking the survey.
Research Objectives

To study the absenteeism scenario among the female workers in selected textile units.

To find out the major reasons/causes of higher absenteeism rate among these female workers.

To study the organizational response/reaction to higher absenteeism among these female workers.

To suggest/recommend remedial measures to combat the problem of higher absenteeism among the female
workers of the selected textile units.

Research Design
The research design adopted for this study is Descriptive Cross-Sectional Research Design, as it tries to describe
the problem of higher absenteeism of female workers in textile industry in terms of the reasons/causes of it at a particular
point of time. Initially, the study has been Exploratory, wherein the researcher has focused on careful review of relevant
literature and elite interviewing and discussions with the key informants for developing thorough understanding of the
topic and to have inputs for structuring the contents of the questionnaire by including the relevant issues.
Data Collection

Primary Data: Primary data has been collected from the female workers through a structured questionnaire
which was personally administered at their work place. The questionnaire was prepared in both the languages
English (For taking approval from the higher ups of the organization) and in Gujarati and Hindi (For ensuring
thorough understanding on the part of female workers).

Secondary Data: Secondary data sources like the Internet, books, magazines, related research papers, etc. have
been greatly used for Literature Review.

Sampling Design
As up-to-date Sampling Frame was available to the researcher, Simple Random sampling method of Probability
Sampling has been used in this study. The total sample size was 100 female workers from the selected 3 textile units. The
respondents were selected by adopting the Lottery Method in presence of the HR/Personnel/Admin. department
representative.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

The collected data have been analyzed by using the statistical tests / tools like Frequency Analysis, Cross
Tabulation, Chi-Square Test and One Sample T-test. The major findings are as follows:

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT

Reliability Analysis addresses the issues of whether this instrument will produce the same result each time if it is
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administered in the same setting. For the Measurement Instrument used in this study, the following result is obtained:
Cronbachs Alfa
0.806

N of Items
22

Here Alpha is 0.806. According to thumb rule of Alpha, here instrument reliability is very good.

FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF THE DEMOGRAPHICS

Based on Frequency Analysis of the Demographics of Respondents, Classification of the 100 respondents is
presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Classification of Respondents Based on Personal Factors
Sr. No.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Personal Factors
Age Group
21 25 years
26 30 years
31 35 years
35 40 years
> 40 years
Educational Qualification
<SSC
SSC
HSC
Graduation
Experience
New to the Textile Industry
6 months 1 year
1 2 years
2 5 years
>5 years
Marital Status
Single (unmarried)
Married
Divorced/Widowed/Separated

No. of Respondents

CategorySkilled
(5)

Semiskilled
Unskilled
Source: Primary Data

30
27
18
20
05
39
45
12
04
17
23
34
18
08
24
72
04
15
47
38

It can be seen that majority of respondents belong to the age group of 21-25 years (30%) and the second highest to
the age group of 26-30 years (27%). So, the textile units have a good mix of young blood (upto 30 years 57%) and aged
employees (above 30 years 43%). In educational qualifications segment, we can see that HSC has been the highest
qualification in 96% respondents. In terms of experience in the Textile Industry, 17% respondents are fresh new to the
textile industry, while 23% of them have just started in Textile Industry having experience of 6 months to 1 year. In regard
to marital status, 72% of them are married, 24% are single and 4% are divorced/widowed/separated. In terms of skill sets,
only 15% of them are skilled, 47% are semiskilled and 38% are unskilled ones.
Some other findings based on frequency analysis are as follows:

A high percentage of female workers (76%) report high job satisfaction, while only 12% are dissatisfied. Rest of

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.2129

NAAS Rating: 3.25

Female Workers Absenteeism in Textile Industry

them(22%) are moderately satisfied.

Majority of the female workers (87%) are using Company provided Transportation Bus, while remaining 13% are
dependent on ST bus of State Transport as well as Private Transporters. No one is living at a walking distance
from the factory premises nor the company provides them accommodation. Even, no one is coming by own
vehicle.

In response to a question on how often they find their work stressful, the findings suggest that 12% respondents
always find their work stressful, while 14% never feel stress due to work. But, 74% female workers sometimes
find their work stressful.

A very serious finding has been in the area of awareness regarding the leave policy (rules) of the company. The
findings reveal that 57% of the female workers dont know the leave policy of the company, while 31% are
partially aware, and only 12% respondents are completely aware about the leave policy (rules) of the company.

32% female workers reported that they dont get leave as and when required. On further questioning about the
reasons for refusal/denial of leave, it is found that the major reasons for not getting the required leave are work
pressure (65.63%) and surprisingly 34.37% (11 respondents out of 32) respondents were denied leave without
assigning any specific reason.

Another worrying finding has been that 5% of them often remained absent without prior intimation/approval, 78%
of them sometimes remained absent without prior intimation/approval, and only 17% of them never adopt such
unhealthy practice.

Enquiring about the reason for their aforesaid unauthorized willful absenteeism, the major causes of absence are
attending social ceremony (42%), own illness (7%), family issues (24%), fatigue-boredom (6%) and no specific
reason (21%).

With a view to have insights into the managements &/or HRs response/reaction to such unauthorized willful
absenteeism, respondents are asked question in this regard also. The findings suggest that the usual response of
the management / HR is verbal warning only (82%), Salary Cut (14%) followed by no reaction (4%). This
indicates that even the management &/or HR is not bothered much by the issue of higher rate of unauthorized
willful absenteeism, as in 86% cases, they are as such doing nothing except to give verbal warning ineffective
enough to solve the issue.

IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ON ABSENTEEISM

Based on the Cross Tabulation and Chi-Square Test, following findings have been obtained:

The tendency of unauthorized willful absence is higher in unmarried (single) female respondents as compared to
married ones. This may be because of our societal pattern to force the bachelors (singles) to attend the social
ceremonies to find out and be in the eyes of others in the community which has been reported as the top most
reason for absenteeism among these respondents.

The demographic variables of age as well as educational qualification of the respondents are not key differentiator
in absenteeism. There is no association between age and absenteeism as well as between educational qualification

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Mehul G. Thakkar, Sumit N. Patel & Snehal J. Kapadia

and absenteeism.

Experience of the respondents has significant relationship with absenteeism. Employees with more experience
remained more absent as compared to those who have relatively less experience or are new to the industry. This is
quite unpalatable, as the experienced ones should have less absenteeism than the fresh ones. But, this surprising
finding may be attributed to the possible negative perceptions of your job content, job context and overall
organizational life based on day-to-day experiences, which the new comer may not be aware of.

The skilled workers remained more absent followed by semiskilled and unskilled. This may be due to a sense of
security and job opportunities elsewhere also at the back of the minds of the skilled ones, which may not be the
case with semiskilled or unskilled ones.

T-TEST FINDINGS
To have more insights in the reasons/causes leading to absenteeism, respondents belief system regarding
absenteeism was targeted with 6 statements. The responses have been analyzed using the t-test at 0.05 Significance Level
with Test Value 2 (agree) and following findings have been obtained:

Belief that remaining absent is a big mistake (2.89) near to Neutral,

Scared/afraid of asking for leave (1.86) near to Agree,

Company doesnt face any issues in my absence (1.78) near to Agree,

Family and Social concerns are the top most priority (1.88) near to Agree,

Enjoy working in the company (1.76) near to Agree,

Experienced any sort of discrimination at work (3.83) near to Disagree,

We can see that the respondents have not faced any sort of discrimination at the work place as well as they are

enjoying working in the company. But, the problematic areas are that they are scared / afraid of asking for leave, family
and social concerns as the top most priority and the belief that company doesnt face any issue in my absence as well as
neutral feeling towards the belief that remaining absent is a big mistake.

RECOMMENDATIONS
As indicated earlier, certain amount of absenteeism is unavoidable. But, based on the findings from analysis of
data, the following recommendations can be given to combat the problem of higher absenteeism among female workers of
textile industry:

As majority of the female workers are not aware of leave policy (rules) of the company, the HR & line managers
should ensure making them aware about the same - may be by including it in the induction programme itself or by
way of conducting departmental meetings or by displaying circulars/guidelines about the same at visible places in
the company, preferably in local languages. This will certainly go a long way in overcoming the problem of
absenteeism. The same suggestion was made by Sreedharan Nair (1970) also.

Most of them are findings their work stressful. Even the most common reason cited for refusal of requested leave

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.2129

NAAS Rating: 3.25

11

Female Workers Absenteeism in Textile Industry

was also work pressure. So, there is a need to humanize the work place by way of making it more appealing,
interesting, cheerful and creating homely feeling.

Presently, in these textile units, there is no extrinsic motivation in the form of incentives for attending the work
place regularly. So, the management may think of introducing incentive schemes in the form of leave bonus,
encashment of available leaves, attendance awards etc. This will certainly serve as a pull factor for these
workers for regularly attending their work place.

As the usual reaction of the management/HR towards unauthorized willful absence is just verbal warning; it
seems that the workers have started taking it for granted. So, the organizations should educate all the workers on
the need for attending work and the consequences for not doing so. Further, they should come up with some strict
measures that warrant the absentees attention.

Personalized counselling of the chronic absentees can also be helpful. As pointed out by Bhatia (1984) and AILS
(1986), counseling helps the chronic absentees to realize the gravity of the problem and do something about it.
This is also consistent with providing new information as a strategy for changing the negative attitude of
workers towards attending the work place regularly. Even a very recent research finding confirmed that employee
counselling can cut absenteeism tendencies among todays employees (Davies, 2014).

Most of them are scared / afraid of asking for leave also speaks about the superior-subordinate relationships. So,
attempts must be made to harmonize the superior-subordinate relations, creating more opportunities for
interactions between them in an open and non-threatening environment.

CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH

The problem of female workers absenteeism at the selected Textile Units seems to be not only a problem
associated with personal reasons on the part of workers, but intertwined with several job/work related issues as discussed
above. Proper planning and implementation of recommendations made above will surely give positive results. But, it is
worth appreciating that off-late also, the higher ups at the selected textile units have felt the need to have a systematic study
on the problem of higher absenteeism among female workers. This humble beginning might help these units to focus on
the issue more intensively and improve the attendance picture and consequently the bottom line as well. Further research is
expected with a larger sample size and more advanced statistical analysis, so that the findings can be generalized.

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