A report by a six-member fact-finding team on the violent clash between migrant workers of Kitex Garments and the police at Kizhakkambalam on Christmas eve has indicted the company of treating its workers as “bonded labourers” and called for an investigation into the alleged nexus between the company and the police and Labour department officials.
The team drawn mainly from human rights organisations released the 15-page report at a press conference here on Friday. The workers were locked up in their camps under the watch of security guards, and even their movements were restricted, the report said.
It is to be suspected that even the clash was instigated by the company to bring the workers under its control and handed over to the police only hand-picked workers.
A skirmish between workers loyal to the company management and those who were not probably triggered the incident.
The workers probably turned against the police after the latter declined to arrest a security official who assaulted a worker, the report said, while also alleging that drugs could not have got into the Christmas party without the knowledge of the company.
Going by the account of local residents, the company management runs a parallel government, and those who questioned it were slammed with fabricated cases. It is unimaginable that a company could function in a State like Kerala in flagrant violation of labour and environment laws despite which the government has turned a blind eye to it, the report alleged.
However, Sabu M. Jacob, managing director, Kitex Garments, dispelled the report as part of a politically-motivated witch-hunt against the company for the last eight months. “That an incident involving the company alone is being studied while overlooking so many other more grievous crimes in the State itself makes the intention of the team suspect. There is literally no State government agency left to investigate the company, and yet none of them have found any irregularity. Nor do we have been indicted in any of the international audits to which we are subjected to as an export-oriented company,” he countered.
Mr. Jacob said that except for COVID-19 restrictions, workers were not restrained in any manner. In a situation where workers are in such short supply, no company can afford to ill-treat their workforce, he reasoned.
