Half-a-dozen Muslim workers returned to work at Richa & Co. — a garments unit based in Udyog Vihar Phase-III in Gurugram — on Friday, a day after The Hindu reported that several of them were turned away citing their religion and told to wait till “there were orders from the higher-ups”.
Around two dozen more are likely to join duty on Saturday. Babul Haq, an operator, who was among those turned away, said he got a call from his floor manager late on Thursday night regarding the management’s decision to allow the Muslim workers to join and his personal manager also rung him up on Friday morning asking him to return to work. Mr. Haq claimed that many other such workers also got a call from the two managers asking them to return to work. He said he along with six more of his Muslim colleagues worked on the first floor of the company and was handed over his movement pass as well, issued by the authority concerned on May 6. The company’s deputy manager (human resource and compliance) Amit Kumar had earlier said the workers were turned away since they did not have movement passes.
Names in red
The Muslim workers had earlier alleged that their names were marked in red and told that there was no work for “those offering Namaz and observing fast”.
All these workers stay on rent in Dundahera village bordering Delhi and belong to West Bengal. Most of them the sole bread-winners said that they could not sustain themselves without work and had rent and other expenses to take care of. The company’s general manager Amardeep Dagar reiterated that the company had a large Muslim workforce and had never imposed religion-based restrictions.
