MONTEGO BAY — Faced with calls for a 15 per cent cut in production costs for the products they make for the US-based Hanes Corporation, the Hart Group of Companies is now in discussions with the government to see what form of assistance it can give their garment company.

Last Friday, the company had to lay off about 80 workers who were involved in the manufacture of panties in the Montego Bay Freezone, as Hanes moved a part of that production operation to Jordan.

“They have asked us to lower our cost of production and we have given them a commitment that we are working towards doing that,” CEO Mark Hart told the Observer yesterday. “And we have actually had to go to the government and seek some sort of assistance, and they have been very co-operative in trying to save the jobs,” he added.

Once the production costs are reduced, he added, Hanes has indicated a willingness to increase production levels for its T-shirts and the factory might be able to re-hire some of the employees it just let go.

Hart did not want to divulge any details about the ongoing negotiations with the government but it has long been recognised that the island’s high security, transportation and shipping costs have hobbled the garment industry.

Friday’s job losses was just the latest in a round of job cuts at the Hart Group’s factories which had 2,800 workers at their peak about four years ago and now have about 1,200. Two years ago, 400 workers were let go when they closed the Apparel Handlers arm of the company. That had stemmed from a move by one of its major customers, Sara Lee Incorporated, to move its operations to Honduras to take advantage of lower production costs.

Then in October of last year, another 440 jobs were cut when Hart closed its sportswear producers number two plant. Those layoffs were attributed to falling sales in the boxer shorts they produced for Stone Manufacturing.

For all these terminations, the Hart Group has had to absorb millions of dollars in redundancy payments.

Now they are re-organising their production schedule as they talk with the government and try to save the rest of their employees from the unemployment line.

And while Hart said that he still believes the garment industry can be viable, he repeated comments he had made last year about branching out into the IT industry.

“(The garment sector) is an extremely competitive industry and, as a corporation, we have decided that we will seek new opportunities in infomatics. I know there have been some recent failures but we feel that the IT sector, and in particular call centres, are extremely viable and much less competitive,” he said yesterday. “In fact, we are also negotiating with some groups about starting some call centres here.”

According to Hart, one group would be willing to start up a call centre next Monday and he estimated that “in the not-too-distant future” that would become a reality — but with some assistance from the government.

“Again, we’re going to be relying on the government wherever they can give some support. We feel that it’s definitely an industry that’s sustainable,” he said of IT.

“Unfortunately we would have to start with some outbound telemarketing but the goal of our company is to have a predominantly inbound customer service type call centres which would be able to add more value and hopefully more stability.”