Factories making everything from biscuits to automobile parts in Gautam Buddh Nagar have been violating labour laws and the district authority has been mum on the issue, a Left-wing labour union alleged here on Friday.
The district committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, which is linked to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), held a protest outside the Labour Commissioner’s Office at Sector 3 here. The CITU district leaders, accompanied by workers from Noida and Greater Noida’s industrial units, shouted slogans and demanded action from the Labour Department.
CITU district secretary Gangeshwar Dutt Sharma said: “Labour laws are being violated with impunity all across the district. The factory owners know that the Labour Department will not go after them, so they have no regard for workers’ rights.”
A maintenance worker at a Greater Noida auto parts company, Trilochan Pandey, said the factory owners had over the past few months shifted all the work to other branches without notice, leaving him and his colleagues jobless. “When we complained, the management said they had paid the District Labour Commissioner Rs.50 lakh and there would be nothing we could do,” said Mr. Pandey.
His colleague, Satyaveer Singh, added that the owners had misguided the workers. “They sent us to work temporarily in branches in Chennai, Pune and Nasik because the company was expanding. When we came back, our factory was locked and we were told to leave,” said Mr. Singh.
The head of CITU’s Noida unit who calls himself “Comrade Bharat Danger” said labour law violations had been rampant in the area for years, but things seemed to be getting from bad to worse. “Though the situation in Uttar Pradesh is quite bad, it is especially dire in Noida,” he said.
Mukesh Kumar, who works in a Greater Noida confectionary factory, said many workers had been laid of for complaining about delayed salaries and lack of wage revision.
Mr. Sharma explained that the owners felt it was easier to fire the workers rather than dealing with complaints. “The owners are not willing to listen and the government doesn’t care. They have not had a meeting of the Labour Commission for a year, but the authorities meet the owners every month to listen to their grievances,” said the CITU leader.
Workers at the dharna alleged that apart from lay-offs, the inflation-linked increments they are supposed to get have also not been given. “For five years, we were given increments, but for the past eight months we have not got anything. Prices are going up because of inflation, so how are we supposed to run our houses if our salaries don’t rise,” asked Mr. Kumar.
After the protest, the union leaders met Assistant Labour Commissioner Rita Bhadoria, who assured them their complaints would be addressed. The workers, who also handed over Ms. Bhadoria a representation to be forwarded to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, had planned to protest outside the District Magistrate’s office in Surajpur, but were denied permission. “The police told us that Section 144 had been put in place. This is a denial of our democratic right to raise our voices,” said Mr. Sharma.
