A report prepared by the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and Perspectives team, which investigated the February 12 violence in garment factories in Udyog Vihar, has revealed how the workers were regularly harassed and allegedly beaten up by the company management. Also, the report says, they were forced to work under precarious conditions on low wages, with overtime becoming a norm rather than an exception.
On February 12, hundreds of workers at garment factories in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, came out on the streets and pelted stones at some of the factory buildings in response to the rumoured death of a fellow worker, Sami Chand.
It was later revealed that Sami Chand had not died, but had been assaulted two days earlier by the staff of the company where he worked — Gaurav International.
After investigating the matter, the team found that the latest incident of a worker being beaten up by company officials was just one in the series of many incidents that are common in garment factories in and around the Delhi-Gurgaon border.
“Workers and local activists claim the former are regularly harassed, beaten, not paid adequately and verbally abused by the company management and bouncer-turned-guards. It is quite common for the worker to be attacked with a pair of scissors, a handy tool, by the supervisor/management or labour contractors. Women workers are often subjected to sexual abuse,” the report said.
Exploring a possible connection between the working and living conditions of the workers and recurring incidents of attacks and violence, the team found that though workers were paid minimum wages as per a Haryana government notification, the purchasing power of the wages had been falling continuously with the monthly basic salary of one of the most privileged kinds of tailors (Sampling Tailor) being a mere Rs.6,203 after the latest revision in 2015.
“Low salaries have made overtime a norm. According to some accounts, many workers put in an overtime of 100 hours per month (at present, legally, only 50 hours of overtime is permitted per quarter i.e. for three months),” said the report.
Virtually every worker is forced to rely on multiple sources of income, such as rations from their native village. Being compelled to keep their families back home is also a kind of subsidy being provided by the native village.
The report further noted that the factories had been employing various methods to continuously increase the pace of work, so much so that sometimes safety precautions were compromised as they tend to reduce the speed of work.
“Accidents are not uncommon. Accidents and incidents of workers’ rage are testimony to the vulnerable and precarious lives of those employed in a sector, which makes a significant contribution to India’s economy,” the report said.
In its concluding remarks, the report said that the garment sector was the face of India’s manufacturing sector in many ways with workers in this sector being the face of India’s working class.
The February 2015 incident was merely the tip of the iceberg and reflected the garment sector workers’ harsh working and living conditions, it said.
