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Hyderabad: Carpenters slash wages; best time for woodwork
- Carpenters fear turning deadwood due to Covid and, hence, ready to work for far less
- Three months ago, a carpenter charged anywhere between Rs 600 to Rs 1,200
- Contract carpenters have shut shop as big projects are on hold
- Price of certain wood has gone up from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,800 and 2,500. As a result, people are reluctant to take up work.
Hyderabad: Planning to redo the wardrobe or finish the pending wood work? There can be no better time, for carpenters are available at your beck and call and what is more! They have slashed their wages considerably. Reason: The Covid-19 pandemic.
With construction activity taking a beating, carpenters who would simultaneously work at three or more sites are now sitting idle. N Srinivas, Carpenter, Mettuguda says, "When we had enough contracts for hotels, real estate and construction sites but in the last three months we have no work. Even the projects that were in mid-way stage are now put on hold."
Carpenters charged anywhere between Rs 600 to Rs 1,200 per day for their services before the corona virus set in, today they are ready to work for as low as Rs 200 per day.
"We used to charge according to square feet costing around Rs 500 to Rs 800 per sq.feet, but due to the present situation we are charging per project to survive," said G Venkateshwarlu, Carpenter from Yousufguda.
"Though we cut down our labour charges people are not ready to use our services due to extreme increase in the price of material in the market, for instance half inch wood was costing around Rs 1,200 is now pricing between Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,500. Hence, people are opting for readymade wood works and furnitures compromising with the quality at e-commerce websites and factory outlets," V Madhu, Carpenter, Chintal.
Bhavesh Kumar, who works as a carpenter in Nagole said that surviving in lockdown is getting more difficult each day. "We would have earned around Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 by working 6 hours every day by taking up small contracts. Since the lockdown geban, we are hardly managing to make money to feed our families," he added.
"If there was proper transportation facility we would have gone to our native places and staying here in cities has become difficult for our survival and lack of sanitation, food, health concern has grown fear in our mindset, it has become extremely tough he said," N Ramesh from Borabanda.
"Moreover, being responsible carpenters we need to buy masks, sanitizers, gloves for our labourers and should collect their health details before sending them to the houses of customers. In addition to it we need to sanitise our daily usage tools which consumes larger time and effort," said another Carpenter Y Mukesh in Ameerpet.
On the other hand, the contract carpenters who deal with only bigger projects shut their services as the material cost is increasing day by day. As the big deals closed their operations, the daily wage workers are struggling to survive and facing numerous challenges to make money.
