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Six workers die due to a gas leak in a steel plant in Andhra Pradesh
Six workers have died, 5 more severely injured after a poisonous gas leak in Gerdau Steel India Limited’s plant at Tadipatri in Andhra Pradesh. According to reports, the workers were restarting a furnace after maintenance work when the accident happened. While two workers died before reaching the hospital, four others succumbed later in the hospital and two still remain critical. While the cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained, it is believed that the workers were exposed to high levels of Carbon Monoxide which can lead to suffocation and death. Such industrial accidents are not a rarity in India as there are few incentives to implement effective safety protocols that are expensive.
Illustration by Aliza Bakht
After a sanitation worker commits suicide, BBMP to pay their due wages
The Bangalore Municipal Corporation (BBMP) has not been paying due wages to its sanitation workers for many months now. On July 8, a sanitation worker committed suicide as he was unable to bear the financial troubles due to this delay. He was said to have taken loans to tide over expenses for his children. With BBMP failing to pay his salary for over 6 months, he was forced into this rash decision. The Pourakarmikas (sanitation workers) have been on a running feud with the municipal corporation and contractors for over two years, on issues of contractualisation and payment of wages. As the incident clearly reveals, in spite of numerous promises from the government, the issue has not been resolved. The problems are compounded by the attempt to link biometrics to wage payments, leaving thousands without payment for months. After a protest by Pourakarmikas on July 12, the Mayor has promised yet again that the issues will be resolved soon. It has also come to light that the municipal corporation had spent nearly four crore rupees to purchase around 200 iPads for the corporators, enraging the sanitation workers.
Construction workers electrocuted in Ludhiana
In yet another example of our callous attitude towards the safety of workers, three construction workers lost their lives when one of them came in contact with high tension wires. The explosion caused a blackout in the area for hours. The workers were plastering a house in the area. Two other workers who were also employed to do the job said that they had informed the employer of the danger yet he forced them to work, even threatening to deny their wages if the job was not completed soon. A case under section 304-A of ‘causing death due to negligence’ has been filed against the employer. However, the eyewitness accounts and survivor testimony clearly shows that the accident was not due to oversight as the employer had been warned of the danger. He is yet to be arrested.
Samsung’s labour practices come under criticism amidst plans for expansion
Recently, the Indian Prime minister and South Korean President inaugurated the expansion of the Samsung factory in Noida. It is touted to become the largest electronic device manufacturing factory in the world. After the expansion, the production of mobile phones is set to double to 120 million a year. However, the workers’ representatives have criticised the labour practices in the electronics industry including Samsung India. They have claimed that in order to increase production while cutting costs, the workers are being made to work even for 12 hours a day flouting labour laws in the employment of contract workers below minimum wages. Given the executive dilution of labour laws, it is becoming ever more attractive for companies to exploit the low wages in the country for unskilled work while also tapping into India’s consumption base. A PUDR report in 2016 exposes the levels of exploitation at LG. Samsung has also been criticised globally for its attempts to break up unions and prevent workers from exercising their rights. While the expansion of the Samsung factory might come as a major image boost for ‘Make in India’, mitigating the exit of Nokia a few years ago, it will come at the cost of workers if the government does not insulate the workers from the unfair practices of profiteering multinational corporations.
A decade after dismissal, a Hyundai worker wins back his job
A Hyundai worker who was active in the union movement that emerged in Hyundai Motors India in the late 2000s was dismissed on charges of threatening a co-worker in 2008. The Labour court took 6 years to approve the dismissal and the challenge petition was heard for another 4 years before the labour court overturned the dismissal. Ironically, the court did not order the company to pay back-wages and restore lost seniority. For the past decade, given the convoluted nature of our laws, the worker could not seek gainful employment elsewhere as it would have meant accepting his retrenchment. The debts owed and interest payments would be a punishment for his political conviction. Even though he has won the case, the court battle is not over yet, with a possible appeal by the management. While it is unlikely that the worker would be allowed to re-join work anytime soon, at least he will get his wages for the remainder of the battle. In this long ordeal, he has been supported by his family, friends and above all by his co-workers, giving him and the workers an opportunity to expose the system. But for many workers without support systems, the process is punishment enough, forcing them to barter justice for survival. Read the full story at Thozhilalar Koodam.
Updates and other news
The UP government has sent out directives to senior government officers to screen for non-performing employees above the age of 50 years for compulsory retirement, even while the employees’ union and opposition parties have criticised this move as a way to muzzle government employees. The government secretaries have been given a clear deadline to initiate proceedings against those found lacking at work. The order issued early in July directs the departmental heads to complete the process of screening the workers by July 31, after which they might be provided three months’ notice to take retirement. The legality of such a move remains open as the employees are protected by existing labour laws from such indiscriminate action. However, the BJP leadership has started a smear campaign with some extending the scope of such action to ‘corrupt’ employees, to elicit more support from the public. However, it begs the question, if some employees are identified as ‘corrupt’, should not the government initiate legal proceedings against them rather than offer them retirements with all benefits?
Indian Railways to hire contract workers to tide over staff shortage
According to an article in India.com, the Indian Railways has decided to hire workers on contract to fill vacant staff positions rather than go through the railway recruitment board process. It is also exploring the idea of engaging retired employees to maintain historic and vintage railway assets as they have experience in working with these machines. The article, however, does not mention whether this is a short-term solution or if this is a permanent fix to cut costs.
Urban sanitation work remains bound by caste
Even after 7 decades since we formally abolished untouchability, caste dominates the way jobs are apportioned in India with the most menial, dirty and hazardous work falling predominantly on the Dalit community. The government has passed numerous laws and policy measures to prohibit jobs like manual scavenging or improve the conditions and status of sanitation workers, but we have often tolerated its existence in our routine life, allowing it to reinforce itself. Here is an article in The Wire that reveals this contradiction in our social life.
Family members of policemen protest for better working conditions
Family members of Madhya Pradesh policemen have threatened to hold protests if their demands, including more pay and allowance, better service conditions and housing facilities are not accepted. A group of female relatives sat in protest at the Nehru Nagar Police Lines in Bhopal but relented after senior police officials called on them late on Tuesday and on Thursday, assuring them that their grievances would be taken up with the government. While we often hear of the excesses of police violence, especially on workers, the policemen themselves suffer from extreme work conditions, lack of leisure and leave and long work hours. Being in uniformed service, they are not allowed to collectivise. Any attempt to form associations are also quelled forcefully by the state using the very tools they have enabled. Earlier in July, the High Court of Madras hearing a plea against the ‘orderly’ system, sought to know from the state government why police constables should not be given a weekly day off like the rest of the workers.
Chennai government transport workers gherao HQ, demand arrears and end to victimisation
On July 11, more than 500 workers of the State Transport Workers Union, affiliated to CITU, gheraoed the MTC headquarters in Chennai. The workers have been angry since the government and the transport corporations have failed to revise their wage increment and make it on par with government employees. Thozhilalar Koodam reports, “Workers’ demands include a proper accounting of the increment and arrears, stopping the victimisation of workers, desisting from unlawfully marking absent for workers, etc.” While the workers were initially not allowed inside by the police, once it was clear that the workers were not going away, negotiations began. After an hour-long discussion, the MD of the transport corporation agreed to take a look at the matter.
International news
Goodyear Mexico fires workers for setting up their own union
As we wrote about earlier when discussing the NAFTA trade deal and Canada’s attempt to change Mexican labour laws, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and Goodyear colluded to sign a contract before workers were even hired at the factory. The terms of this union contract were exploitative and when the workers tried to form a separate union, that would actually represent their interests, they have been assaulted on all sides – the law, CTM and their employers. Now a group of workers have been fired because of their efforts to organise. IndustriALL report that “The workers set up the Independent Union of Workers at Goodyear Mexico to ensure that the company would respect their fundamental rights and to rid themselves of the protection contract signed by the employer-backed union CTM.”
Weekend reading
Why human resources personnel should know labour laws: A comprehensive blog post that discusses which labour laws affect employees and why HR personnel should understand the provisions. Read more here.
Fresh proof that strong unions help reduce income inequality: A new working paper titled “Unions and Inequality Over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data,” by four economists – Henry Farber, Daniel Herbst and Ilyana Kuziemko of Princeton, and Suresh Naidu of Columbia – establishes that unions have constrained income inequality far beyond their own membership ranks. Read more at the New York Times.
The danger of members-only unionism: With the passage of the euphemistic Right to Work laws in many states in America, unionisation has been delivered a painful blow. The situation in the state of Tennessee in the USA shows the effect of these and other anti-union legislation on the organisation of state teachers and educators. This article describes how “writing off non-members rather than winning them over will not make the labour movement any more militant or successful”.