Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashok Pujari has urged the State government to take steps immediately to liberate workers of ISO 9002-certified Gokak Mills at Gokak Falls on the outskirts of Gokak town from alleged exploitation by the company’s management.
Mr. Pujari, who led a delegation of representatives of various social organisations and submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram, alleged that the elected representatives of Gokak had failed to address the woes of the workers.
He said that Gokak Mills, established in 1885, had been modernised over the decades and it had grown into one of the largest cotton mills in Asia.
The company was also a major exporter of cotton-based products, including quality industrial and knitting yarns. It had further diversified into dyed yarns, canvas, terry towels, knitted garments and other products over a period of time.
But, the company had been systematically bringing down the number of workers by introducing modern technologies.
Of late, the number of workers had come down to only 2,000 from 12,000 in the past, thereby throwing away nearly 10,000 workers from their jobs. The management was resorting to arm-twisting methods to extract work while not providing wages and benefits as per the Labour Act. Any question raised by workers was dealt with sternly and with a warning that a lockout will be forced on them, he said.
Mr. Pujari said that the company once again threatened the workers of a lockout when the latter staged a protest at the factory site on March 9 but was not willing to work towards the welfare of workers. Not only the elected representatives concerned but even the officials of Labour Department have failed to come to the rescue of workers, he said.
