Contract Workers | SabrangIndia

‘No Distinction’ Between Workers: Manesar Auto Firm’s Union Defends Membership to Contract Worker

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 03:45:48 +0000

File Photo.

New Delhi: There is no distinction between the workers when it comes to forming a union, said the employees’ union of Manesar-situated Bellsonica Auto Components, an auto parts manufacturer, in its reply to Haryana Labour Department, while defending the grant of membership to a contractual worker.

Last year, the union, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in Gurugram’s automotive belt, had granted membership to a contract worker of the company, in a move that prompted the state’s Labour Commissioner-cum-Registrar of Trade Unions to seek an explanation from the former earlier this month.

The action, “prima-facie appears illegal” as it is a “contravention” of the Constitution of the union, read the commissioner’s letter dated September 5, addressed to the union.

The Constitution of the union, framed under relevant provisions of the Trade Union Act of 1926, however, does not make any distinction between a regular and a contract worker, the Bellsonica employees union has said in its reply, adding that forming a union is a fundamental right of every citizen.

“The Trade Union Act, 1926 does not make any distinction between a regular and contract worker when it comes to forming a union,” the reply dated September 28 read. “… the constitution/rules of the Union as framed under Section 6 of the Trade Union Act, 1926 also does not make any distinction between a regular and contract worker,” added the letter, a copy of which has been accessed by NewsClick.

The reply further added that the Constitution of the union has been duly approved by the office of the Labour Commissioner.

The matter pertaining to the grant of membership to one contract worker at Bellsonica, which is also a first-tier vendor of Maruti, was brought to the fore when the factory management of the said company’s Manesar unit flagged the action in August this year, demanding cancellation of the union’s registration, NewsClick has reported earlier.

Subsequently, the latest objection of the Haryana government to granting membership to a contract worker had also called for attention to the burning question faced by trade unions in the country: Can contract workers be unionised?

Labour law experts, with whom NewsClick spoke to earlier, are of the opinion that a union is within its rights to grant membership to the contract workers if its Constitution allows for the same.

Likewise, other union leaders also extended their support to the move, underscoring that the unionisation of contract workers is a long-pending demand and must be achieved within the industrial quarters in the country.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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WB: Coal Workers Fight for Better Wages, Deplore Labour Codes

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 04:28:10 +0000

Representational use only.image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Kolkata: Krishna Acharjee, 40, is a contractual worker with Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) at the Bansra opencast project of Raniganj. After nearly 12 hours of duty as an unskilled labourer, he makes around Rs 400/day while his wage on paper is double. The father of a child, Acharjee, is always in pain to make ends meet, being the only earning member of the family.

“On paper, our wages are more than our contractor pays us. Interestingly, when they apply for a tender, they mention the wages-on-paper as workers’ expenses; however, we are paid a meagre Rs 400 as unskilled workers in the collieries,” he told NewsClick.

In recent years, the coal industry saw a decrease of around 50% in permanent workers. In the 1990s, ECL employed around 1,82,000 permanent workers, which has come down to 52,000.

To maintain the production capacity at 100%, ECL is now busy outsourcing its mining operation to outsourced partners. These partners employ contract workers to excavate coal from opencast projects. Contract workers currently carry out more than 70% of production.

The contract workers work 12 hours at meagre wages without any benefits/incentives. They are not eligible for CMPF (Coal Mines Provident Fund) or any statutory benefit. Areas where they are employed, are without any food outlet, toilet, water, or light.

In ECL, 33 outsourcing projects are currently at work where the conditions mentioned above are extremely common. Many workers who work in the collieries are migrant workers, leading to job scarcity for the local workers.

Birju Yadav of the Bansra area, who is also associated with Colliery Mazdoor Sabha (CMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), told NewsClick that the departmental workers are unionised and CMS CITU is is the largest union in the region. However, he explained, the contract workers are still exploited as they cannot even unionise without risking their jobs.

The permanent jobs in the underground jobs are only available for departmental workers. At the same time, jobs like roofing and transporting products are done through third-party outsourcing.

“There are three types of mines in the region. Firstly, there are mines wholly operated by ECL. Secondly, there are mines where outsourced partners work, and lastly are the captive mines where only outsourced parties work through contract workers and excavators,” Yadav told NewsClick.

He further said that in Bansra and North Searsole Opencast projects, most of the coal workers are outsourced.

“According to Coal India, there are about 2.5 lakh coal workers while 75,000 contract coal workers work in the different coal fields of the country. Though Coal India puts the number at 75,000, the real number of contract workers may go up to 3-4 lakh,” Yadav outlined.

After a prolonged battle by the trade unions, the Coal India authority constituted a high-powered committee in 2013 for all its subsidiaries, including ECL, which gave recommendations for wage augmentation of the contract workers of the collieries.

In 2018, the second high-powered committee was constituted, which recommended further enhancement of the wages of the contract coal workers of the subsidiaries of Coal India. However, no recommendation has been given credence. The contractors continue to pay meagre wages to four categories of workers in the collieries.

*Including VDA (variable dearness allowance) added in 2022

This gets even more ridiculous as contractors mention different wages on paper than what they pay the workers.

According to the new wage agreement, contract workers can be members of CMPF and are eligible for medical benefits.

“CITU-affiliated Khadan Thikedar Mazdoor sabha is building up a strong movement in the region with the aforesaid demands of providing just wages to the contract workers of the region,” Yadav said.

NewsClick spoke with Gouranga Chatterjee, organising secretary of Colliery Mazdoor Sabha and presently the secretary of Burdwan West district committee of CPI(M). He pointed out the national monetisation pipeline against which the coal workers are organising themselves.

They are also proposing to shoo away prospective buyers from their vicinity. Additionally, they oppose measures aimed at withdrawing pro-worker legislation, such as the Minimum Wage Act 1942 and the Payment of Wage Act 1936. The four labour codes proposed by the Union government aim to replace these acts.

“Already the management has given four collieries to private parties on profit and loss sharing basis in lieu of that the ECL will get 4% of the profit if there is profit after starting full-fledged operation at those privatised collieries.”

He also spoke against ECL’s steps against land subsidence in the coal mine areas and the coal smuggling issues raking the state. Abhishek Banerjee, number two in Trinamool Congress (TMC), is allegedly involved in these cases.

Chatterjee also pointed out that in 2015, during the passage of the Coal Mines (Special Provision) Act 2015, TMC supported the bill aimed at privatising the coal mines.

“Another issue in the coal mining area is that the ECL gives the land on lease and not against complete land deeds during new land acquisition. A movement against it has already been fostered in the Rajmahal area of neighbourhood Jharkhand. Coal India and ECL have to supply low ash content coal to the power plants, where high ash content coal also works fine, leading to revenue loss for Coal India,” he pointed out.

Kalimuddin Ansari, a coal worker and secretary of the Kunustoria area of CMS-CITU, candidly talked to NewsClick about how a new trade union of TMC is acting as a decoy for the ECL management. Additionally, he said that the TMC union is proving to be a hindrance to the united movement of the coal workers to get their demands met.

The demands include a just relief through the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) and wage increment for departmental workers, among other things. The ECL management is dilly-dallying with the demands.

“We are currently fostering a movement in the region against ECL management,” he informed.

Another demand is to cancel the national monetisation pipeline, which has marked 160 mines of Coal India to be handed over to private parties. The coal workers are also decrying the move to demerge the ECL, BCCL (Bharat Coking Coal Limited) and CMPDI (Central Mine Planning and Design Institute ) from Coal India and the 25% share sale of the Coal India subsidiaries.

“The workers have also protested against the deployment of contract workers named Coilabeer to excavate the mines. They are also demanding for immediate payment of 15 days arrear wages of the coal workers,” Ansari told NewsClick.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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‘Illegal’: Haryana Govt Flags Union Membership to Contract Worker at Manesar Factory

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 04:11:42 +0000

Last year, the employees’ union at Bellsonica Auto Components Private Limited granted membership to a contractual worker. Image courtesy – Facebook

New Delhi: In what is set to bring an old challenge faced by the country’s labour movement to the fore, the Haryana government has recently flagged the admission of a contractual worker in the employees’ union at one Manesar-situated auto parts manufacturing unit while terming the move to be “illegal”.

Last year, the employees’ union at Bellsonica Auto Components Private Limited, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in Gurugram’s automotive belt, granted membership to a contractual worker of the company. This was done with an apparent aim to protect the rights of this worker, who had been facing disciplinary action from the management.

The said action, however, “prima-facie appears illegal” as it is in “contravention” of the Constitution of the union, the Labour Commissioner of Haryana said in a letter dated September 5 and addressed to Bellsonica employees’ union.

Through the letter, a scanned copy of which was accessed by NewsClick on Wednesday, the state’s Labour Commissioner sought an explanation from the union within 20 days. Appropriate action in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 shall be taken against the union in case of no reply, the letter added.

Ajit Singh, general secretary of Bellsonica employees’ union confirmed on Thursday of having received the said letter. “We are currently discussing among ourselves and are in the process of preparing an answer,” he said while speaking to Newsclick over the telephone.

Explaining the matter, Singh informed that one Keshav Rajput, a contractual worker at Bellsonica, was granted union membership in November last year. “The union has been thinking of bridging the divide between the permanent and contract workers for many years. Last year, when [Bellsonica] management initiated disciplinary action over some matter against Keshav, the union decided to admit him as a member in the union to protect his rights,” he said.

However, the move to grant union membership to a contractual worker did not go down well with the management of Bellsonica, a first-tier vendor of auto major Maruti, Singh added.

Subsequently, this year, in a letter dated August 23 and addressed to the Registrar of Trade Unions, the management demanded that membership of “all contractual workmen” should be “cancelled immediately.” In Haryana, the Labour Commissioner is appointed as Registrar of Trade Unions.

“… as per rule mentioned in the constitution [of the union], it is clearly mentioned that “Any worker who is working at M/s Bellsonica Auto Component India Private Limited can become an ordinary member of the union” but in the present case, the rule has not been followed by the union,” said the management’s letter, accessed by NewsClick. Highlighting the same, it further demanded the cancellation of the union’s registration.

On Thursday, responding to the above claim, Singh maintained that admission of contractual workers is “in no way” a violation of the terms of the union constitution. “This is nothing but yet another attempt of the [Bellsonica] management to de-register our union,” he said, adding that the union has vowed to fight it.

NewsClick also contacted Mritunjay Nath Sahu, vice president – HR at Bellsonica, who refused to comment on the issue. “This is a matter between the labour department and the trade union,” he said.

Can Contract Workers be Unionised?

The latest objection of the Haryana government to the granting union membership to contractual workers has called for attention to the burning question faced by trade unions in the country: Can contract workers be unionised?

Hired by the labour contractor, who is enlisted with the employer as supplier of contract labour, the engagement of this so-called temporary workforce has observed a significant rise in number across various sectors in recent years. Likewise, in industrial quarters, such as Manesar – the country’s major auto hub, the ratio of contract workers to permanent workers has also shifted by fast accentuating the former.

The logic behind the factory management hiring more contract workers is simple – by not being on the rolls of an employer, this workforce can be easily kept bereft of the relative job security and higher wages enjoyed by the permanent workforce, despite both the groups having made to do an equal amount of work.

But can the same argument also be used to disqualify a contract worker from being a member of a factory union?

Senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjoy Ghose, who looks after matters pertaining to labour laws, does not believe so. While speaking to NewsClick, he highlighted that it is a fundamental right of every citizen to form associations or unions – a right that is accorded by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.

“Even the Trade Unions Act of 1926 does not make any distinction between a regular and contract worker when it comes to forming a union,” Ghose said, adding, “Every worker in a factory or an establishment is eligible to become a union member. The only thing is that the admission of contract workers must not violate the said union’s constitution in any way.”

The 1926 Act requires, upon the registration of a trade union, the constitution of an executive and the formation of rules which provide for the by-laws to admit members. In recent years, the labour department, while engaging in shaping these by-laws, has weighed the interests of the employers over the employees, Ghose rued on Thursday.

According to experts, this means that the contractual workforce, who are more insecure than the permanent ones, are also generally kept deprived of their right to access collective bargaining.

Moreover, there is another catch; as multiple reports in the past highlighted, unions themselves are also often not very receptive to giving membership and voting rights to contract workers. “For a long time, even the permanent workers were not in favour of extending membership to the temporary workers,” said K R Shyam Sundar, a labour economist and visiting professor at XLRI, Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur.

According to him, in a factory unit where the majority are now employed on contractual basis, there remains an “apprehension” on the part of permanent workers of getting marginalised. “Such fears are then also exploited by the management which implicitly and, in some cases explicitly, would discourage the unionisation of its contractual workforce,” Prof. Sundar told NewsClick.

To be sure, the Trade Unions Act of 1926, which defines laws relating to the employees’ bodies, is now subsumed under the Code on Industrial Relations, 2020, which is, however, yet to be notified in to effect. Alleging that the said Code tilts the labour regime in favour of employers at the cost of workers’ interests, along with the other three, the Central Trade Unions and independent employees’ bodies in the country have been up in arms.

But when it comes to the question of granting union membership, Prof. Sundar on Thursday underscored that the Code continues to make no distinction between the workforce – in line with the definition of a “workmen” under the existing 1926 Act.

AITUC, CITU Come Out in Support

Meanwhile, on Thursday, leaders of the All India Trade Union (AITUC) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) also expressed their support to the granting of union membership to contract workers. They underlined that it is long-pending demand and must be achieved in the industrial quarters if the constitution of a factory union permits so.

“If the union constitution allows it, then why shouldn’t the contract workers be admitted to the factory unions?” AITUC Manesar’s leader Anil Panwar asked while speaking to Newsclick.

Satbir Singh of CITU also suggested the same as Panwar while highlighting that “at a time when the Indian working class is facing the worst ever onslaught on its rights,” it is the need of the hour. “With contract workers in the union, the unity between the workers will only get strengthened,” he said.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Delhi workers gherao Kejriwal’s house, demand regularisation

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 07:44:15 +0000

Thousands of sanitation workers assembled outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house on October 25, 2021 to demand regularisation of contract workers. The Thekedari Hatao Rashtriya Samyukta Morcha called for the protest to question the government about election promises of dismissing the contract system and ensuring fiscal compensation to kin of deceased sanitation workers.

According to President D. C. Kapil, around 80 government worker unions, associations and social groups participated in the protest at the Chandgiram Akhara in New Delhi to show their anger. “All groups in the protest demand that a special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly be called to end the contract system in line [with party assurances] of regularising contract workers and ensure Rs. 1 crore compensation to families of sanitation workers. There is great anger among the families that have assembled,” said Kapil.

Despite repeated assurances by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2014, 2015 and 2020, around eight lakh government posts are still vacant, said Kapil. Furthermore, he cited an RTI from the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board that said only 419 vacancies were filled between 2014 and 2021. The remaining posts were filled by contract workers.

Therefore, the Morcha demanded that workers who completed 240 days of work should be regularised as per Supreme Court guidelines, and all vacancies be filled under the Special Recruitment campaign. Similarly, it reiterated the monetary compensation to families of 57 workers, who died while working during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also alleged that the government used Rs. 28,000 crore from Scheduled Tribes scheme on advertisements and water and electricity subsidies instead of ensuring educational development for Dalit groups.

Among other demands, the Morcha also condemned the new excise policy, and the continued attack on Dalit girls in the capital city.

Maharashtra: 580 sanitation workers made permanent on industrial court orders!

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Contract workers to gherao Kejriwal’s house

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 05:42:02 +0000

Delhi’s Stop Contract Work Samyukta Morcha, a non-political organisation of 80 unions and social groups, will gherao (protest by surrounding) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on 25 October, 2021 to remind him of the pending promises made by the Kejriwal-government during elections.

At 11:30 AM on Monday workers in the city will assemble outside the Minister’s house and demand regularisation of contract workers, compensation for sweepers and the complete suspension of the contract labour practice. Jai Kisan Andolan leader Yogendra Yadav will also take part in this protest.

In 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared in its election manifesto to regularise services of contract employees. However, after winning elections, the government only put a restriction on the termination of services of any contract employee.

Later in 2019, Kejriwal again promised the Delhi government will make every contract worker a full-time worker within 24 hours of gaining full statehood. According to the Millenium Post, Kejriwal also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally for AAP’s East Delhi candidate Atishi stating, “Do not think I am making false promises here… I am an educated person and I do not have a false degree.”

Maharashtra: 580 sanitation workers made permanent on industrial court orders!

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Punjab: Contract workers put ‘No Entry’ signs for Ministers who failed employment promises

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 12:42:33 +0000

Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Contract Workers Union members on April 3, 2021 resolved to gherao Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Cabinet Ministers and wave black flags to protest the Punjab’s government’s “false promises” of door-to-door jobs and regularisation of contract workers.

Union State President Varinder Singh Momi said ministers will be surrounded and questioned with regard to the delay in regularising earlier contract employees and the reason for retrenchments. To display their frustration to frustration to political leaders, workers that availed low salaries for over 14 years in rural areas, put up ‘No Entry’ warning boards outside their homes on Saturday.

State General Secretary Mr. Kuldeep Singh Budhewal said that the government is shunning its responsibility towards about 3,500 contract employees serving in various posts in supply schemes and offices. Instead, policies are introduced to privatise rural water bodies and all departments.

According to Press Secretary Satnam Singh Falianwala such policies abolish the public institution water supply department, under which 177 BRCs have been set up.

“Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Cabinet Minister Razia Sultana have lied and lied. Before winning elections, jobs were promised to the unemployed but more than four years have passed and the state government has not confirmed contract workers of any department,” said Falianwala.

The union leaders accused the Punjab government of betraying people by taking anti-farmer, anti-labour and anti-employee decisions under the guise of Covid-19. They warned that protests would continue until their demands were met and that the state government and water supply management would be directly responsible for any loss during this period.

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Diwali likely to remain dark for contractual workers in Bihar

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 06:31:18 +0000

The state’s education minister has promised them their salaries before Diwali but the teachers are not convinced.

Sukhdeo Paswan, Umakant Kumar, Sanjeev Jha, Binit Manjhi, Mahender Yadav and Santosh Kumar Singh are six among nearly 3.5 lakh contractual school teachers in Bihar, locally known as ‘Niyojit Shikshak’, who are upset and worried ahead of Diwali.

The festival of light is likely to remain dark for them as they have not been paid their monthly salaries for nearly six months. They failed to celebrate Dussehra (Durga Puja) for the lack of money and they are not sure if they will be paid their dues before Chhath, the most popular festival of the state that is celebrated six days after Diwali.

“It is going to be a dark Diwali for us. It is difficult to celebrate the festival without salary. It has become difficult for us to even run the family,” Sukhdeo, a contractual teacher in Vaishali district, told NewsClick.

His view was echoed by Umakant, another contractual teacher in Araria district. “How can you expect a contractual school teacher like me to celebrate Diwali without salary? It is the only source of livelihood for me,” he added with visible worries on his face.

Both of them expressed concern over the non-payment of salaries for months owing to the alleged apathy of the state government.

“Majority of contractual teachers belong to the poor socio-economic background and are facing a bad situation. There are contractual teachers, who have been facing a starvation-like situation due to non-payment of salaries,” said Sukhdeo.

Sanjeev, a contractual school teacher in Saharsa district, narrated the same story adding that that festivity is missing for him. “I was hopeful to get salary after Durga Puja, but nothing happened. It pained us. We have already celebrated Durga Puja without salary, now Diwali is coming. Contractual teachers should be paid their monthly salary on time if not anything,” he puts forth.

However, Bihar Education Minister K. N. Prasad Verma said contractual school teachers have not been paid their salaries due to the delay in preparing software to ensure that they get the benefit of the Seventh Pay Commission.

”We are trying to pay them salary before Diwali and certainly ahead of Chhath,” he added.

But Gajender Sharma, the leader of contractual school teachers group said that he is not impressed with the assurance given by the minister.

“The minister (Verma) had announced to pay us the salary ahead of Durga Puja but failed to do so. He is repeating the same promise once again. We too have families, children and social life. How can the government ignore all this and leave us in the lurch,” he said in a fit of anger.
According to him, all this is a part of the deliberate strategy of the top brass of state administration to put contractual school teachers always in stress by creating constant trouble.

Officials in the education department said the state cabinet has already approved revised pay scales for its employees, pensioners and contractual government school teachers with effect from April 1, 2017.

“But it has not been implemented so far,” they added.

Binit, a contractual teacher in Arwal district, said it is a horrible time for him to manage his family without salary.

“I am a Dalit and I don’t have landed property. I am fully dependent on salary for survival. Unlike other contractual school teachers from dominant upper castes and OBCs, I am poor and was upbeat when joined the job. But I am still struggling to cope with life,” he added.

He has been facing problem at a social level as well. “It is not the first time that I have not been paid the salary for months. In the past also, I have faced a similar situation. My relatives and co-villagers have begun to treat me as a government employee, who has no financial problem after I joined as a teacher. None of them realizes that my financial position is not good. So now they expect a lavish show on festivals,” he said.

Mahender, a contractual school teacher in Madhepura, regrets his decision to join the government job leaving a well-paid private job in Ludhiana in Punjab. “I am extremely disappointed with the way the government treats us. How can you expect teachers to give students good education when they are struggling to make ends meet,” he added.

Different people have different problems. This non-payment of their salaries have made their lives hell. Mahender has been waiting for salary to take his mother to Patna for medical treatment.

“In July this year, I promised my ailing mother to take her to a hospital in Patna. But I could not fulfil the promise so far due to lack of money,” he said.

Contractual teachers have been agitating regularly and the event went on strike nearly two years ago, demanding pay at par with regular teachers and better working conditions in schools. They demanding equal pay for equal work. They get less salary than regular teachers.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

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How Chhatisgarh’s Contract Workers Overcame the Odds

Mon, 08 Feb 2016 08:43:12 +0000

A deep commitment to collective rights from the local union, international solidarity and grit ensured that the contract workers of Chhattisgarh inked a remarkable settlement, this January

January 22, 2016 marks a watershed in a 25 year long struggle for contract workers in the ACC Jamul Cement Works (now Lafarge Holcim plant),Chhattisgarh when their union the Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) signed a settlement that is exceptional, on many counts.

For the past quarter of a century, the Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), a union affiliated to the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Committee), has been fighting a long battle on the streets and within the courts. The protests and legal action(s) have been against the hard conditions of work for the contract workers in the cement plant of ACC Jamul that violate both fundamental rights and the law. The ACC Jamul plant has kept its contract workers in dismal conditions in violation of the industry-wide Cement Wage Board Agreement.

In 2006 the Union won an order for the regularisation of hundreds of contract workers, which was partially upheld by the High Court in 2011, limiting the relief to approximately 120 workers who were still in service. Even this High Court Order could not be implemented. The reasons:an intransigent management that refused to even recognise, far from negotiate with the PCSS, and which grew even more powerful as it was incorporated into Holcim andthen LafargeHolcim, a multinational; a callous and toothless labour department; and a hostile, pro-corporate right wing state government.

Strikes and dharnas followed until the matter was dragged back into court. This dispute lay pending before a Division Bench of the High Court of Chhattisgarh.

In the year 2012, two things happened. First, the PCSS got support from the Global Federation IndustriALL and solidarity from Solifonds and Unia—international global solidarity organistaions for workers working in multinationals. The solidarity organisations filed a complaint against Holcim before the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP) of the OECD in Berne, Switzerland,pointing out that Holcim was disobeying the guidelines for multinationals by violating Indian labour standards and court orders, by refusing collective bargaining in good faith, and by violating the rights of the surrounding farming communities.

Second, and simulataneously, Holcim began constructing a huge, highly mechanised, state-of-the-art new expansion plant in Jamul, aimed for several times more capacity. It fondly imagined that after closing down the old plant and getting rid of its 1200 odd workers (and of course their Union too!) it would run this plant with some 90 highly trained workmen from outside. Right from the inception of this plant, PCSS began agitating for local employment and intervened several times for the rights of the thousands of construction labour engaged there.

After many delays and much procrastination, discussions actually began between the top management of Lafarge Holcim and the PCSS, following directions of the Swiss NCP, first in Berne and then, from 2014 onwards, in India. The negotoations threw up a difficult choice for the Union –(to push for )the benefits of regularisation and arrears to a small group of workers as directed by the High Court versus (negotiating for) minimising the retrenchment that was being proposed.

At this point the workers who were among the beneficiaries of the High Court order, showed a remarkable collective union spirit in giving up those benefits to push for maximum deployment of existing workers in the new and old plants with better working conditions; and the maximum compensation package with alternative livelihood support to those who were to lose jobs.

Despite some discouraging rounds and many heated discussions, the PCSS team, led by its chief negotiator Ashim Roy of the NTUI, and the management, led by Behram Shirdewala, Chief People Officer, were able to persist and finally arrive at a settlement. This was despite the opposition of the local political class and vested interests, especially the 22 contractors and their 60 supervisors who were also to be rendered irrelevant in the whole process.
The settlement (the copy of the settlement can be read) provides the following:
Of the 932 contract workers, 536 of them would be deployed in the new and old plants – 212 of them at Cement Wage Board rates (about 4 times the minimum wage), 196 at 50% of the Cement Wage Board rates (twice the minimum wage) to be enhanced to full wage board rates in 2 years; and the remaining at 25% above minimum wages – to be enhanced to 30% above minimum wages after a year. (These workers were selected through a skill assessment process by the management which the union tried to keep as fair and transparent as possible.)
The remaining surplus workers have been awarded 3 months of wage for every year they worked as compensation (in addition to their gratuity and other legal dues), thus getting packages ranging from over 20,000 for a worker who has worked for a year right up to around 4.5 lakh rupees for older workers.
About 200 of these workers have put in less than 5 years, and another around 75 workers are over 55 years of age. Each such unmapped worker would be entitled to nominate one person from his family to get industrial training from the company’s training centre and support in placement.

For contract workers this marks an unprecedented breakthrough.

Neither the Union nor the workers can be happy about losing jobs. Particularly when it means venturing out of the protective umbrella of the Union into the ‘market’ where dignified employment is a far cry for the average working class Indian given the den of labour law violations that our industrial areas have become.

But, the painful and protracted consultations confirmed that the alternative of legal retrenchment with just one month’s pay –that too after further, endless legal battles –was probably the more painful choice.

The larger political issue of whether such labour – displacing technology is really needed, or should be our priority, needs to be fought for by the larger working class movement of which this union is only a tiny and not very powerful part.

For PCSS, this is the beginning of another round of struggle. To organise contract workers in other units of the cement industry and in other industrial areas; to give these workers a place to come to for solidarity when faced with multiple hardships– slum evictions, agrarian crises, atrocities against women or communal and targeted violence — and to develop a centre for a broader political education. Most of all to establish a co-operative society to save workers from the tentacles of money-lenders, these are the formidable tasks ahead. A detailed Timeline of the struggle in ACC Jamul can be read here:

This is the time to recall all those who helped us through long years. The struggle has not been ours alone. The women and men of the working class bastis of Bhilai and Raipur and villages of Baloda Bazar of who stood in solidarity with us to brave lathis (stick blows) and share the trauma of confinement within jails and lockups; our friends amongst unionists, lawyers, journalists, students, social activists, film makers, and intellectuals in Chhattisgarh and all over the country, who supported us morally and materially; our comrades of IndustriALL, NTUI and Solifonds who through international solidarity made negotiations possible – to all of you, we say a very big thank you.

We also remember, humbly, those who are no longer with us –Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi and the martyr workers of Bhilai – who remind us of larger political goals and dreams, still a very long and way away. We hope that today’s gains strengthen our resolve to fight the narrow gains of 'economism' and to move towards these wider goals.

Duniya ke Mazdooron Ek Ho!
Looteron ki Jageer Nahi, Chhattisgarh Hamara Hai!
Inquilab Zindabad!

(This has been jointly issued by Bansi, Lakhan, Ramakant, Rajkumar, Kaladas, Saraswati, Kaushal, Neera,Shalini, Rinchin, Shreya, Mahesh, Sudha, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Committee)