A group of five trade unions under the aegis of Samyukta Trade Union Samiti took out a protest march to the industrial park under the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) at Kalamassery on Wednesday protesting against what they claimed was the denial of rights of headload workers in the construction of a private godown building that was going on in the Kinfra park.
P.M.A. Latheef, district vice president of Swathantra Thozhilali Union,, said that the private company, which was building a large godown in the Kinfra industrial park, was not giving employment to any of the local headload workers, who are generally deployed in construction works. He claimed it was a denial of the rights of local workers.
Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said that the issue had been taken note of and was being looked into. Labour Department sources said that the current labour regulations did not make it obligatory for any company to provide jobs to the workers though there have been informal arrangements that are made between company managements and trade unions on deployment of labourers.
Sources in the company said the company had its own workforce and any extra work opportunities would be open as demanded by trade unions. They denied having any standoff with the trade unions on any issue.
Kinfra sources said that the park authorities under the State government had no information about the protest.
K.M. Ashraf of the CITU, who is also the Ernakulam district general secretary of the Headload Workers' Union, said that there were around 465 workers in the pool at Kalamassery. They were being denied the right to employment. CITU, INTUC, STU, BMS and AITUC unions were part of the protest.
