[Reader-list] Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 4 (June 2007)
Jeebesh Bagchi
jeebesh at sarai.net
Thu Jun 7 16:22:57 IST 2007
News from the Special Exploitation Zone -
www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 4 (June 2007) Gurgaon in Haryana
is presented as the shining India, a symbol of capitalist success
promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of
development. At first glance the office towers and shopping malls
reflect this chimera and even the facades of the garment factories
look like three star hotels. Behind the facade, behind the factory
walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of
workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters for the
middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the new highway
between Delhi and Gurgaon. Thousands of young middle class people
lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in call
centres, selling loan schemes to working-class people in the US or
pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door
thousands of rural-migrant workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis
stitch and sew for export, competing with their angry brothers and
sisters in Bangladesh or Vietnam. And the rat-race will not stop; at
the outskirts of Gurgaon, India’s biggest Special Economic Zone is in
the making. The following newsletter documents some of the
developments in and around this miserable boom region. If you want to
get to know more about working and struggling in Gurgaon, if you want
more info about or even to contribute to this project, please have a
go at: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk In the June issue you can find:
1) Proletarian Experiences - Daily life stories and reports from
workers' perspectives "Needles and Threats", Local Textile
Industry, Part One - A text on the local textile export industries,
including Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar reports from a young textile
worker about his journey from village to industrial city life. Plus
stories about how the management of a bigger textile company in Okhla
got rid of permanent workers by making use of repression and by
taking advantage of the workers' trust in their official
representatives. 2) Collective Action - Reports on proletarian
struggles in the area "No more Heroes!", Local Automobile Industry,
Part Two - Factory occupation and chain reaction of workers' unrest
at Hero Honda and Shivam Autotech factory in Gurgaon, April 2006. A
rough overview of one of the most significant workers' actions in the
area during recent years. 3) According to Plan - General
information on the development of the region or on certain company
policies "Red Flags and Welfare Schemes" - Some symbolic gestures
during the Day of Labour. "Extreme Outsourcing"- Because of rising
rents and wages and toll-taking highwaymen, some local call centres
make use of internet cafes in order to outsource work; they speed-up
the hiring process and put pressure on the less fortunate service
workers. "Corporate Watch" - This month with news items on: DGM
India, GVK Bioscience, House of Pearl, IKEA, Maruti, Promed, TCI 4)
About the Project - Updates on Gurgaon Workers News "Hindi Version"
- Introduction to the Hindi version of the Gurgaon Workers News,
about to be distributed in the area. Glossary - Updated version of
the Glossary: things that you always wanted to know, but could never
be bothered to google. Now even in alphabetical order.
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1) Proletarian Experiences "Needles and Threats", Local Textile
Industry, Part One - Reports from the local textile industry The
series "What are we/you doing...?" puts our daily experiences in the
focus, against the general trend of giving more importance to the
`big events´ (marriages of the rich and beautiful, election results,
cricket World Cup, etc.) than to our own life. The first step in
changing our lives is to reflect upon it together, shredding the veil
of boredom and misery. Following are three reports from the textile
sector. The first report is from a young worker living in Delhi area,
telling about his daily life; it was originally published in
Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar (FMS) no. 215, in May 2006. The second
report is from a Sona Fashion worker; the third is about LM Sagar
Export describing the policy of many textile companies in Delhi’s
South, shifting work and workers between various factories, often
using official strikes as a pretext to re-structure exploitation.
These two stories were distributed in the area with FMS no. 216, in
June 2006. All three stories are from the industrial area of Okhla,
in the South of Delhi. In order to get some background information on
Okhla textile cluster we attach a summary of an academic study by
NISIET (2003). On the rather narrow empirical base of short chats
at chai stalls in the more shiny textile area of Gurgaon Udyog Vihar
Phase One we can say that at least in terms of basic wages and
working-hours the situation is similar compared to the one in Okhla,
as is the situation in sector 34 and 37 in Gurgaon. In front of the
Orient Craft factory (pics: see web-site), opposite of the Hero Honda
factory, two former workers hired through contractors sit and wait
for their out-standing money. They report that workers are abused and
hit in the factory. But as soon as buyers from America or Europe
arrive, everything is all nice-nice again. One of the workers has
been kicked out because he returned late from his village in Bihar.
He worked at Orient Craft for about seven months. He says that the
permanents get about 3,200 Rupees (Rs) per month, their over-time is
paid double rate, while the workers hired through contractors get
about 2,500 Rs and mostly do piece-work. Orient Craft has about 20
factories in the Gurgaon area. Just across the road in the industrial
area of so-called Pace City 1, Sector 37, a permanent worker sits at
another chai stall, also waiting for his severance pay. He worked as
a skilled tailor in sector 37, in the finishing department of a
company making shirts for export. He had a permanent job, but he
decided to quit it. The company promised double-rate of the over-time
payment after three months of employment, but they never paid. People
were abused, wage payments were delayed and the wage was crap anyway,
ranging between 2,500 to 2,800 Rs. The worker knows that he might
have to return many times in order to get his outstanding money,
about 5,000 Rs. Maybe the many job adverts at most of the factory
gates in Gurgaon assured him in his decision to leave the job
"tailors needed, helpers needed". The decision of the Haryana
government to increase the minimum wage might be more than just a
formal move, but a reaction to the wage pressure from below. The
conditions in Gurgaon are not only similar to those in Okhla, but
also to those in Bangladesh and Vietnam, where there have been major
textile workers upheavals in the export zones recently... What are
we/you doing...? (A nineteen year old worker.) I get up at 6:30 in
the morning. For an 8ft by 8ft room in a newly built house in Tekhand
we three people pay 910 Rs rent per month. The house has two floors,
altogether fifteen rooms, the landlord lives somewhere else. There is
one latrine upstairs and one downstairs. At the moment three or four
rooms are empty, that is why the queue for the latrine is not that
long. There is no bathroom; the men bathe outside, the women inside
their rooms. The house where I lived before was much more crowded and
the rent for a much smaller room was 920 Rs. At 7 am one of us cleans
the alloy pots, the second prepares wheat flour rotis and the third
cooks some vegetables, then we bathe. At 8:30 am, after having had
rotis, we three go off to work. At the moment I work at the Anand
Internationals D-3 factory in Okhla Phase One. Right from the
beginning of the shift at 9 am you are immersed in trying to meet the
target. Nowadays I make ties - when starting this work the company
gave you 12 minutes to finish a tie, then after three days it was 11
minutes, then 10-9-8 and now it is 7 minutes per tie. Because the
target was too high I left the Anand Internationals A-185 factory
after two months of work. There you got 20 minutes per skirt at the
beginning, then 19 minutes the next day and the target time kept on
dropping; by the third day it was down to 10 minutes. You have to
increase the work speed so much that the body cannot keep up, the
work is consuming the body. My father does handicraft work, he makes
metal utensils as a profession. Well-off people in the trade asked
him to come to Kanpur, Nagpur, or Nepal. But today - because of steel
and aluminium - plates or water-pots made of brass or copper do not
sell anymore. In the village I left school after the seventh class
and learned how to tailor. When I was fifteen, in 2002, I went to
Delhi with an uncle and he got me a job in Okhla Phase One, in the
A-257 factory of Raj Mataar. Instead of small sewing machines like in
the village there were big Zukki machines and ‘modern fashion’
production in the factory. During the four months of the 'learning
and doing' period I worked day in and day out from nine in the
morning to one in the night. The pressure from the company was a
clear "do it or leave it", and my uncle also said that I should stick
to it. I was still in puberty and after four months of working such
long hours I fell ill. In Delhi Doctor Usha Maheshvari took a 200 Rs
fee and diagnosed TB. I went back to the village and Doctor Pande in
Ilahabad took a 20 Rs fee and said that my blood picture is bad. I
stayed in the village for four months and bought medicine from Doctor
Pandes’ shop, which was 20 percent overpriced, and continued my
treatment. When back in Delhi I started working at PeeEmparo Exports
factory (F2/6 Okhla Phase One). I worked there for three years and
they covered neither ESI nor PF. Every eight to nine months I went to
Ilahabad in order to get medicine. Then I made friends with someone
in Okhla who gave me treatment. Then at D-3 factory of Anand
International you had to work from 9 in the morning to 12 at night.
Official working hours were from 9 am to 9 pm but if a worker
finished work at 9 pm then the company would only count working-time
till 8 pm, meaning that in order to save one hour paid working time
for which you had already worked, which is 16 and a half Rupees, you
work till 12 at night! Your company account is sealed on 15th of
April, meaning that the company card will expire and you will be made
a new one. The numbers on the cards change and the cards are kept in
the factory. (meaning that the workers cannot proof their seniority).
From the total of fifteen working days I was 30 hours in minus,
lacking behind in the race for the target. The company cut 496 Rupees
from my wage. In the factory the target becomes an obsession; if you
go for a piss, you get minus (meaning that they cut your wage), if
you go to drink water, you get minus. Only when it becomes unbearable
do we go for a piss or to get water. Only for the lunch break at 1:15
pm do we get up from the machines. On the board in the canteen it
says that a meal is 8 Rupees and a tea is 1.5, but actually it is 12
and 2. If you ask about it they say that the board is just for
display. The lunch break is 45 minutes and in order to allow people
to get out quickly there are two security guards for checking
people; at midnight when people finish work a huge crowd queues up
because there is only one security guard. Then it takes ten minutes
to leave the factory premises. For lunch I go back to my room, where
there is the food we made in the morning. After eating I leave the
dishes like they are so that there is a little time for relaxing. At
2 pm you are back in the factory behind the machine. At 4 pm there is
a fifteen minute tea break; we leave the factory for tea. From 4:15
pm till 6 pm behind the machine, then another tea break, leaving the
factory in order to grab some food, and again from 6:15 pm onwards
behind the machine. In the factory there are 300 sewing machines,
they are in the basement where it is very hot; even in winter you
sweat. One always feels suffocated. Out of the 300 workers there will
be 10 who are healthy, the rest of us suffer from this or that
illness. No one has been given an ESI card, we pay privately for our
treatment and if you are too ill you get fired from the company. In
the first floor of the D-3 factory of Anand Internationals there is
the office, in the second and third floors the finishing department -
cutting threads, removing stains, ironing and packaging. In the
fourth floor there are people who earn 15,000 to 25,000 Rupees, they
don’t talk to us. In the fifth floor, next to the canteen, chemicals
are prepared for washing the clothes. For 500 men and women working
in the factory there is only one latrine each in the basement, there
is always a queue. Because nowadays they keep us working until
midnight they give us half an hour dinner break at 8:30 pm. We eat at
a street stall - the company gives us 20 Rs for food. Then again,
from 9 pm to midnight behind the machine. After returning to my room
I go to sleep at about 1 am, leaving the dishes from the noon break
like they were. At the moment they put 7:30 pm as the time that we
finish work on the timecard, so it shows 1.5 hours overtime. The
payment for overtime is at double rate, but what does that mean if we
actually work 15 hours, from 9 am till midnight? If the working time
was from 9 am to 9 pm they would say on the timecard that we stopped
work at 6 pm. The timecard is to show to the buyer and the labour
department. There is not a day off, neither Sundays nor any other
day. The delegates of the buyer GAP or Lenson announce their arrival,
and at that day we finish work at 6 pm. In the factory conversations
are not like they should be and people misbehave - abuse, swear
words, lies, exaggerations, petty cheating. If a piece is wrongly
made then you get told off by the line man and the master. Our land-
lord at home bickers about our water and electricity consumption.
When work finishes at 9 pm then one of us gets some veggies on his
way home from work. In Tekhand the market is very crowded even at 10
pm.. The shop-keepers pack up their stuff at midnight. When back in
our room we clean the dishes and make food. We do not even make tea
at home. At night we make rice, lentils and roti-bread, the veggies
we prepare in the morning. We get veggies, lentils, rice, flour, oil,
spices, gas and soap together and each cent is listed in a book; in
every respect we have learnt to keep separate accounts of everything
one spends. At the moment I live with very close relatives. For food
and rent each of us pays about 1,100 Rs, in addition to that 10
Rupees are spent daily on tea and food in the factory. If you work
from 9 am to midnight you get 5,000 Rupees, if you work from 9 am to
9 pm you get 4,000 Rupees. Apart from covering my costs here I send
money back to the village, because if you fall ill you cannot predict
how much money it will cost you. During the four years that I am in
Delhi, I have never been well - illnesses have cost me 30,000 to
32,000 Rupees. What hope is there in this kind of existence? You just
have to keep on going. Sona Fashion Worker Plot F-63, Okhla Phase
One. There is one shift from 9 am to midnight. Only the 20 women
employed in the thread-cutting department leave the factory at 9 pm.
Fifteen hours of daily work, 30 days per month: our condition is bad.
Some skilled workers are given 110 Rs for an eight hour shift, others
115 Rs; this is 13.75 Rs and 14.25 Rs respectively per hour. For
lunch and tea break they deduct one hour, so they pay us for fourteen
hours per day. Those women who cut threads and other helpers get
1,800 Rs per month, based on an eight hour work day and a 26 day work
month. The overtime is paid at the single rate, based on this wage.
For the fifteen hour shift the company does not give you tea, but
they provide 20 Rs for food. The water-cooler in the factory is
broken and the quality of the drinking water is bad. For 80 machines
there are two air coolers; the air reaches eight machines and the
other 72 sewing workers are soaked in sweat during work. LM Sagar
Exports Worker FMS no.213 and no.216, March and June 2006 Okhla
Phase One - the factories B-48, B-237, B-242, and D-116 manufacture
clothes for export. The sign at the gate of all the factories says LM
Sagar Exports, but inside on the documents it says JK Textiles, KK
Apparels, Manish Apparels, DB Garments, Sonu Enterprises, MM
Apparels, HV Enterprises and other names. There was only one general
manager and one personnel manager. In order to avoid having to give
workers permanent contracts (see glossary) the company had a trick:
workers are sometimes listed in the account of one company, sometimes
another. In this game of changing names, several months’ worth of
workers´ PF money was embezzled as well. The workers kept on working
and the PF is deducted from their wages, but the deducted money was
not deposited at the PF office. According to the company’s documents,
during this period the workers were not employed in the factory!
There were also workers employed by contractors inside the factory.
Despite all that the workers managed, by all kind of means, to create
such a pressure that the company made 1,500 out of 6,000 workers
permanent. Officially the shift was 8 hours, but actually workers
worked 10 and a half, twelve, and even sixteen and a half hours on a
daily basis. The overtime did not show up in the company’s documents
and it was only paid at single rate. Most of the casual workers and
workers hired through contractors were not mentioned in the company’s
records, they neither got ESI nor PF. Those workers employed by
contractors did not get the minimum wage mandated by the Delhi
government. The management paid less than their stated fixed piece
rate. They cut wages under the pretext of bad quality. This was
common practice in the company. Bullying by goons was also a common
issue in all the factories. The arrangements for drinking water were
not acceptable. In spite of it all the company started to get into
difficulties. For four years (since 2002) there have been delays of
wage payments. The resistance of the workers grew. Jag Sagar was
replaced by Kailash Agraval and Amit Agraval as directing managers.
The new directors´ priority was to get rid of the 1,500 permanent
workers. By bullying individual workers they managed to kick 250 out
of the factory. ...On Saturday, the 11th of February, when the
workers of the B-48 finishing department asked the new managing
director Kailash Agraval for their January wage, he answered: "How
can you have the courage to ask for wages? In two minutes I will kick
you all out". After the weekly Sunday off, when the workers arrived
at the factory gate at 9:30 in the morning of the 13th of February,
there were five guys with guns and 15 guys with laathis and inside
there were guys with hockey sticks waiting as well. The company had
brought these people in three vans. At the gate notices with the
various companies' letterheads were attached each listing the names
of all workers employed in the finishing department. The notices said
that the workers had verbally asked for their final dues and that the
company was going to give them. The guns and laathi men stopped the
100 workers from entering. 150 sewing machine operators from the
sewing division were let in and they were given the January wage on
the 13th of February. Once the shady deals with the future funds (PF)
became known to the workers, the skilled tailors joined a union. On
the 15th of February the finishing department workers also gave money
to this union and obtained their member receipts. After a complaint
by the union a labour officer arrived at the factory on the 16th of
February. The personnel manager only talked about the issue of the
final dues and said that the workers can do what they want but that
they will not be taken back on the job. On the very same day there
was a meeting of the union with the director Amit Agraval, where he
said that he can get free electricity in Muradabad, that he will re-
locate the company there, and that the Okhla workers will get their
final dues. By making the notice pay, compensation, gratuity, bonus
sum, etc. the question of concern, the conditions were created for
striking a deal which did away with 1,500 permanent jobs of workers.
Then at the B-237 factory they managed to force a huge number of
workers to resign at one go, after the workers were tricked into a
union banner-and-strike-tent action (meaning a traditional union
protest) with the corresponding lock-out by the management. After
having kicked out most of the casual and contract workers in January
2006, in February the management picked the B-48 factory as their
target. On the 13th of February 100 workers from the finishing
department were stopped at the gate. Hand-in-hand with another union
and the Labour Department the company had arranged this deceptive
action. It resulted in getting rid of 100 workers in one go (see
passage above). In April the company singled out the sewing workers
of the B-48 factory. On the 12th of April 90 workers were laid off,
on the 16th of April another 50, on the 18th of April the remaining
80 workers were laid off (see glossary "lay off"). Being transfixed
by the union the workers abstained from taking steps themselves and
then again, after complaining about the leaders having sold out, the
workers only continued lamenting. In the absence of actions taken by
the workers themselves the company, the union and the labour
department were successful in tightening the noose - by 1st of May
the employment of all permanent workers at B-48 was finished. Only
some permanents are left at B-242 and D-116. All the talk about the
company shifting to Muradabad turned out to be bullshit, the company
opened a new factory in Faridabad, under the name of Target Fashion.
Ten of the senior staff were sent there, too. The company sold the
machines of the B-237 factory and was taking the machines of B-48 to
Faridabad. Okhla Readymade Garment Cluster The development of
the garment industries in Okhla started in the late 1950s, although
the main boost came during the 1970s and 1980s, when imported, power-
operated cutting and sewing machines were introduced. Another shift
was the displacement of the raw material industries (bleaching,
dyeing, printing) from Delhi during the 1980s and 1990s. Raw material
now comes mainly from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Migrant workers from
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the main work-force in the Okhla area.
After the printed cloth arrives in Okhla the primary work then
consists of cutting, sewing, embroidery, finishing, washing, ironing
and packaging. Most of the garments are manufactured for export; the
design and samples usually are dictated by the buyer. There are
hardly any official figures of how many companies and factories are
involved in the process; the NISIET study from 2003 states that there
are 500 fabricating and 250 embroidering units in Okhla. The number
of sub-contractors is not given. The same report says that 40 percent
of the overall export garments come from Delhi and 40 percent of
Delhi’s output originates from Okhla. It reckons that 50,000 workers
are employed in the area. Knowing that most of the workers are not on
the official payroll (see reports), the actual number will probably
be three to four times higher. If you wait at one of the several
entry points to the industrial area and watch people arriving for the
early shift, you get a feel for the real numbers of workers: at the
railway-crossing near Apollo hospital alone over 100,000 people pass
within two hours. According to the report the average export factory
employs 100 people. It lists the following reasons for the
development of the cluster: already-provided infrastructure for the
factories, short distance to railways and the airport, short distance
to raw material supply, easy supply of migrant work-force, and
proximity to political and public administration in Delhi. The report
categorizes different types of companies in the area: -the buying
house (getting contract from buyer, organising the business, checking
quality of sub-contractors), -the manufacturers (get direct contracts
from buying houses, sub-contract parts of the work), -the machine
embroidery units (get contracts from manufacturers), -the contractors
(take contracts from manufacturers and embroidery units and give work
to work-shop and house-hold units), -traders and manufacturers of
threads, buttons, fittings (supply to the industry in the area), -the
machine manufacturers and maintainers (provide and repair tools and
machines for the industry), -the packaging and transport units, -the
training and administrative bodies. The study also comes up with
following value chain analysis, with the percentage referring to the
later sales price: basic raw material (50 to 60 percent), processing
of raw material, e.g. bleaching, dyeing, printing (10 to 15 percent),
cutting and fabrication (10 to 15 percent), fittings and accessories
(7 to 8 percent), finishing and packaging (7 to 8 percent),
embroidery and handwork (plus 25 percent on sales price). It reckons
a profit margin of 5 to 30 percent for the different kind of
companies involved. Most of the machinery is imported, mainly from
Japan, particularly from Zukki Machines Corporations. Most companies
are family-owned, and the study says that a minimum investment of
100,000 to 150,000 Rs is necessary to get a contract in the area.
Between 2000-2003 a down-turn hit the industry in Okhla; according to
the study 50 percent of the manufacturing units have been closed or
shifted to other areas, mainly Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad. The study
gives two (rather unconvincing) reasons for the closures: the
liberalisation of the textile market and the lower minimum wages in
Gurgaon (Haryana) and Noida.
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2) Collective Action "No more Heroes!", Local Automobile Industry,
Part Two - Strike and factory occupation at Hero Honda motor-cycle
plant and its supplying company Shivam Autotech. Gurgaon, April
2006 Intro After we had a short glimpse at the structure of the
local automobile industry in newsletter no.3, now we document how
workers made antagonistic use of their central position in the web of
social cooperation. The example of the Hero Honda strike is last
year’s news. Why bring a workers' struggle up again, about one year
after it took place? Although widely ignored by media and by most of
the official organisations, the strike and factory occupation at Hero
Honda and Shivam Autotech have been the most important recent
workers' unrests in the Gurgaon area. The wildcat action at Hero
Honda was followed by direct actions of temp workers at Honda (HMSI)
and Delphi in the following months (see next issues of the
newsletter). The important features and lessons of the short period
of strike and factory occupation are: * The unrest hit one of the
main cores of the local industry. The Hero Honda factory in Gurgaon
is the two-wheeler factory with the highest daily output in India and
attached to it are over 240 official suppliers. * The strike hit
with full force, and no notice was given, therefore the management
could not prepare a countermove (piling extra stocks, increasing
production in other plants, mobilising strike-breakers, etc.). *
The strikers managed to avoid a lock-out situation and the consequent
police repression by occupying the factory. * At Hero Honda the
workers hired through contractors were organising the strike, at
Shivam it was a united strike of all categories of workers. This is
rare in a situation where most of the official strikes are led by and
mainly in the interest of permanent workers. * According to the
group of workers who struck, their demands were addressing issues of
hierarchy (abolishment of different kind of uniforms) as well as wage
questions. The demands were egalitarian, trying to overcome
differences within the work-force. * The workers' mobilisation
spread from the main plant to the supplier, without open or official
organisational links. The impact of the strike was noticeable further
down the supply-chain (truck-drivers, second-tier suppliers). * The
official unions were outside of the strike. Some positive elements of
the strike might be due to the absence of established unions (no
strike notice, occupation, involvement of workers hired through
contractors), as well as some of the problems, e.g., that there was
little support from the outside, necessary during a factory
occupation. * Workers showed that they are able to organise a
strike, but during negotiations workers displayed their inability to
finish it in their favour. The workers at Hero Honda sent a small
delegation for negotiations and they paid for this mistake. The
Shivam Autotech workers tried to avoid this, but got bogged down in
legal processes and were divided. * Both strikes showed the
volatile situation in the industry, the weak links of capital: the
fragile supply-chain and the simmering anger amongst the casual and
temporary work-force. In the aftermath the management debates equated
the strike at Hero Honda with the suddenness of natural
catastrophes. For the summary of the unrest we rely on some
internet and media material, some short conversations we had with
workers at the factory gates during the strikes, an article published
in the Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar (May 2006) and a report by
comrades from the area, written shortly after the strike at Shivam
Autotech. We structured the summary as follows: 1. Overview on the
Indian two-wheeler sector 2. Glimpse on the structure of Hero Honda
company 3. Strike at Hero Honda a) Prelude of the unrest b)
Chronology of the unrest c) Workers' demands and result of the
dispute d) FMS article 'Hero ka Honda' 4. Glimpse on the structure
of Shivam Autotech company 5. Strike at Shivam Autotech a) Prelude
of the unrest b) Chronology of the unrest c) Negotiation Process d)
Outcome e) Short visit at KDR, a supplier of Shivam Autotech in
Faridabad 1. Overview on the Indian two-wheeler sector India is
the 2nd biggest two-wheeler market and manufacturer in the world. The
sales numbers increased from around 0.1 million in the early 1970s to
3.76 million in 2000 to 7.9 million in 2006. This is compared to
about 1.1 million passenger cars being sold in 2006. About 70 percent
of all registered automobiles in India are two-wheelers. The ”market
saturation” is still low; in 2000 there were about 10 bikes per 100
adults (aged 18 to 50), a total of 42 million running (registered)
bikes. The main growth of the sector started with joint-ventures in
the 1980s (Hero Honda, Bajaj Kawasaki, TVS Suzuki, Escorts Yamaha).
Export of two wheelers is still limited, both in terms of numbers
(about 350,000 in 2005), as well as regionally (mainly other Asian
and African countries). Together with pedestrians, riders of two-
wheelers also account for 60 to 70 percent of the 300 people who die
in road accidents every day in India, 60 to 70 percent of the 1,000
daily permanent injuries, 4,000 daily serious and 18,000 minor
injuries. These numbers are rough estimates from 2000, though as you
can see above the number of annually sold two-wheelers has more than
doubled since then. 2. Glimpse on the structure of Hero Honda
company The Hero Group, directed by the industrial dynasty Munjal,
started as a supplier of bicycle components in the early 40s. Over
the years, the Hero Group had entered multiple business areas,
largely related to the transportation industry. The group bought into
multiple areas of raw material processing, such as steel rolling, to
the manufacture of subassemblies and components. In 1984/85 Hero
Group started a joint-venture with Honda. Both partners held 26% of
the equity with another 26% sold to the public and the rest held by
financial institutions. Hero Honda became a public company listed on
the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In 1999 the joint-venture with Honda
became critical, because Honda set up 100% subsidiary Honda Scooter
and Motorcycles India (HMSI). The Honda HMSI plant is only 15 km down
the road from the main Hero Honda factory. At the day of the
announcement of the entering of HMSI into the market, Hero Honda’s
share price dropped by 30%, given the outlook of fierce competitions
in the two-wheeler segment. But Honda was ready for concessions.
First, Honda agreed to delay entry into the motorcycles segment until
2004. It also agreed to form a four-person committee with two members
from Hero Honda to examine any new motorcycles that it would release
post-2004. Lastly, it offered an opportunity to Hero Honda to share
in the equity as a minority holder in HMSI. The fact that both
companies also tap into a similar pool of suppliers should make clear
that only from a very legalistic and formal view can they be seen as
two separate companies. The same is true for the composition of
capital of the seven main suppliers of Hero Honda, which are
basically subsidiaries of the Munjal Group (for example: Munjal Showa
Ltd., Sunbeam Auto ltd., Majestic Auto Ltd. Shivam Autotech Ltd.).
The Munjal Group has set up a range of firms to supply components,
not just to Hero Honda, but also to other automobile companies. These
operations range from the manufacture of shock absorbers and wheel
rims to aluminum castings and plastic products. Apart from Honda, the
Hero group has joint-ventures with Universal Cycles Plc. from the UK
and Bombardier-Rotax from Austria. In 2006 Hero Honda sold
3,336,756 motorcycles in India, which means that Hero Honda has a
major market share in India (still around 40 to 45 percent) and is
the biggest motor-cycle and bicycle producer in the world. In 2007
Hero Honda laid the foundation stone of a third plant in the Gurgaon
area (the other two plants are located in Dharuhera and Haridwar).
The Gurgaon plant has a daily output of about 6,000 bikes per day and
a major dispatch department for spare parts. Spare parts are a big
business, given the 42 million running bikes in India (2000). Hero
Honda’s management has been very paternalistic towards its work-
force, a mixture of tight social control and employee family outings,
of enforced discipline and company cricket teams. This is expressed,
for example in the company’s suggestion scheme: "All employees who
make a suggestion are given a ballpoint pen. Further, the best
suggestion of the year is given the annual award of cash prize and
the family is given a plant visit along with a free lunch in the
factory cafeteria" (source: “Transferability of Japanese Human
Resource Management Practices: Case Study of Honda Japan and its
Joint Venture Hero Honda in India” by Ms. Srabani Roy Choudhury ). At
the Gurgaon plant the permanent workers were put in a position very
distinguished from the rest of the casual work-force, distinguished
due to their supervising function and also visually distinguished by
differently coloured uniforms. Following are some excerpts from a
manager's study showing that the paternalism at Hero Honda Gurgaon
plant starts with recruiting: "The Gurgaon plant has taken
considerable trouble to recruit the right kind of individuals at the
shop floor level. The personnel manager at the Gurgaon plant told the
researcher that apart from technical knowledge he looked for honesty
and earnestness in the candidates. Moreover the integrity of the
candidate, past record of alcoholism, vandalism and involvement in
union activity is given due consideration. The department has
therefore ventured into a time consuming policy of background checks.
A candidate’s background is given a thorough checking by contacting
his previous employer. Moreover, someone from the plant goes and
meets the employees in his previous company, as well as gathers
information about him from nearby shops and tea stalls. Hero Honda
management supports this sentiment and even rejects a candidate with
very good qualifications, if he is found to have some past history of
unionism. Honda Japan conforms to the Japanese practice of enterprise
union system - with 100 per cent participation of workers up to the
level of assistant managers. The Honda union functions at two fronts
- collective wage bargaining during the spring offensive and
participation through meetings at various levels. The management
having had a bitter experience of unionism in the Daruhera plant is
keen to establish communication channel with all employees so as to
enable the management to react immediately to grievances of the
employees". (source: see previous citation) At the time when the
strike kicked off at the Gurgaon plant the general division between
the 1,400 permanent workers and the 5,500 workers hired through
contractors became blatant. The company sent the permanents into
holiday, and they went. Interesting is the fact that, like the
suppliers, the contractors at Hero Honda are also related to Hero
Honda managing Mujal Group. They sub-contract the contracts to other
smaller contractors (Sehgal Brothers, Prakash Contractor and Ram
Mehar Mann of RSV Enterprises). 3. Strike at Hero Honda a)
Prelude of the unrest The workers hired through contractors at Hero
Honda had been angry for various reasons: * Although 50 percent of
these workers have worked in the plant for more than six to seven
years, they are not offered permanent contracts. * There is a huge
wage difference: after six to seven years a permanent worker will
receive up to 30,000 Rupees per month while a worker hired through a
contractor gets between 2,200 and 6,200 Rupees. * Most workers have
all kinds of trouble because they do not receive a company card,
which is necessary for dealing with authorities (e.g., when applying
for medical care or other benefits). They are not enrolled in the
register, which means that they will not receive PF or ESI. * Casual/
workers (see glossary) hired through contractors are not given work
periodically as production targets change. When that happens, Rs 500
is cut from their monthly wage. * There have been cases of physical
harassment of the workers hired through contractors by supervisors
and managers of Hero Honda. We have no idea what finally triggered
the dispute. Some people said that a bigger group of workers was not
taken back after they returned from holiday (a lot of workers come
from far off places in Bihar or Orissa). This is said to have been
the final straw. Other sources say that there were some informal
gatherings taking place during the week before the 10th of April 2006
where workers agreed on taking action. b) Chronology of the
unrest 10th of April 2006 Strike and factory occupation begins when
workers refuse to leave the factory after the end of their shift. For
some pictures from the action, visit our makeshift multi-media
section on the web-site. 11th of April 2006 Most of the workers
have confined themselves within the factory premises demanding
regularisation of jobs while another 500 are waiting outside, giving
moral and physical support to the workers inside. "The police have
prevented us from standing near the gate or raising slogans," says
Sushant, a contract worker from Orissa, who was not allowed by the
management to go inside the factory. (source: Labourfile). Hero Honda
starts negotiating with the strikers. In a public statement made by
Hero Honda, it says: "A section of workers hired by contractors have
raised demands on their contractors and have irresponsibly stopped
working". Reply of a worker during an interview with a newspaper: "We
want all the 4,000 contract workers to be absorbed in the company as
regular employees, so that we do not have to deal with contractors
any longer." (source: DNA Money) The article presented this worker as
a "strike leader", then as a "spokesperson", while adding that there
is no union inside the plant. 14th of April 2006 Allegedly the
water supply for the workers inside the factory has been cut on the
13th of April. Hero Honda says in a statement that the ongoing strike
at its Gurgaon plant will "not impact" the company's annual
profitability or production targets. "Hero Honda aims to make up the
production loss by stepping up production from the current 5,800
units per day to 6,500 units per day, post commencement of operations
at its Gurgaon plant," the company said in a statement in New Delhi.
"Due to the very nature of the business, there are sufficient stocks
in the pipeline and at the dealerships," it said. "The company would
also like to clarify that this is a flash strike and there is no
formal workers union at its Gurgaon plant. Also, the permanent
workers are not supporting this strike," it added. The canteen
stopped providing food for the strikers after the third day of
occupation. Some local unionists said that they started collecting
money for food. 15th of April 2006 Production at the manufacturing
plant in Gurgaon remains suspended for the fifth day in a row.
Meanwhile production at Hero Honda’s other plant at Dharuhera is
going on as usual. At the retail level some dealers complained of
supply problems for a few specific motorcycles. Only a small police
force is stationed at the factory, most of them sleeping in the
shade. Workers hold assemblies on the factory lawn and put up self-
painted posters. Some call centre workers on the other side of the
street watch the scene. No one is allowed to enter the factory, the
security guards are still in place. Allegedly the police refused to
enter the factory premises and management was afraid of creating
dangerous situations (dangerous for their factory and machinery).
16th of April 2006 The rather miserable end of the strike. After
representatives of the Labour Department refused to enter the
factory, both the Labour Department and company management asked for
a delegation from the workers. About six to seven workers went to a
meeting outside the factory; other people, amongst them local
unionists, were not allowed to attend the meeting. The delegation
returned and said that the strike was over, promising that some of
the demands were met. The workers called off the strike, but those
workers who went as a delegation to the negotiation disappeared.
People assume that they have been bought off. Allegedly, out of the
5,500 workers hired through contractors only 4,000 went back to work
the next day, angry about the fact that a lot of the demands were
actually not met (for more on the demands, see below). A contract
worker at the gate said that they were granted an Rs 1,000 monthly
wage rise. He said that people are not happy with the result, but
that they decided in an assembly to stop the strike. It sounded like
some strikers (strike leaders?) had suggested to resume work after
the negotiations did not proceed. About 20 - 30 workers who took part
in the dispute were dismissed. Hero Honda management announced that
in order to compensate for the loss of production, output at the
Dharuhera plant had been stepped up. c) Workers' demands and
outcome of the dispute Some demands of the workers have been agreed
to - whether they are actually implemented remains to be seen: * A 30
percent hike in wages of casual workers. Workers hired through
contractors used to getRs 4,000-4,500 a month for an 8 hour shift.
That will now be Rs 5,500. In comparison, ITI graduates (skilled
workers hired through contractors) get Rs 6,500. * Besides this 30
percent hike, there will be no difference in dress colour between
helpers and ITI graduates. The initial demand to abolish the
different uniforms for permanents and temps has not been met. * The
wage of the contract workers will go into a bank and they will have
ATM accounts. * They too will get a gift annually. This was told by
workers at the gate one day after the end of the strike. However,
workers seeking casual/contract work at the Gurgaon plant of Hero
Honda report that ever since the strike at Hero Honda during April-
May 2006, workers hired through contractors are now being hired only
at the Haryana rates of Rs 2,400 (this is the minimum wage valid in
April 2006). During short conversations in May 2007 workers hired
through contractors working at Hero Honda say that those amongst them
with ITI qualification get 6,000 Rs per month, those without get
4,800 to 5,000 Rs, which would mean that the strike resulted in a pay
hike. Apart from that they tell that there has been little change
since the strike. They say that the major changes after the strike
were that they received ATM bank accounts and that now all skilled
workers, disregarding their contract situation, got white uniforms.
Nowadays the helpers hired through contractors have to wear the blue
uniforms and the burden of visual minority. Interestingly, in a
discussion amongst managers of various automobile manufacturers
managers were quite blatant about how to assess the strike. In an
article published in the ”automobile” section of www.indiatimes.com
they stated: “The Hero Honda strike or indeed the floods in Mumbai
last year, the transport strike in were all instances when JIT-
dependent Motown's supply chains went for a six. "When the floods
happened not having a single supplier helped us because we had
multiple suppliers from whom we could step up supplies to overcome
the crunch," says General Motors' [manager] Balendran. As for
strikes, here too there is a built-in buffer which is violated only
when the dispute involves irregular workers. "In most cases, any
legal strike that a labour union goes in for is preceded by an
advance notice to the management about the strike which gives the
management some time to take stock of the situation," adds Balendran.
Says Hero Honda head of marketing PS Sunder: "We have a stock of 15
days with our dealers so retail sales are not hit." Adds Ravi Sud,
vice president-finance, Hero Honda: "We manufacture 5800 bikes in our
Gurgaon plant. If we value a bike at Rs 35,000 then we are losing an
estimated Rs 20 crore per day which is loss of sales to dealers and
not retail sales. However, we would make up for it by stepping up
production to 6500 bikes." (source: http://auto.indiatimes.com/
articleshow/msid-1496288,prtpage-1.cms) d) FMS article 'Hero ka
Honda' Although in the following article there are some repetitions
and some statements which contradict some of the information above,
we nevertheless want to include it as a report and a kind of
summary. The Honda Hero Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar no.215, May
2006, (reported by someone who regularly visits the Hero Honda
plant) In the Hero Honda factory in Gurgaon 1,350 to 1,400 permanent
workers and 5,500 workers hired through contractors are employed. In
addition there are 300 to 400 security guards who are hired through
another contractor. On the 15th of April the 5,500 workers hired
through contractors suddenly stopped work; the production was put to
a halt till 21st of April, when work was resumed. The Hero Honda
factory in Dharuhera was not affected. Most of the permanent workers
are employed in the motorcycle assembly. About 25 percent of the
workers hired through contractors are in the motorcycle assembly and
75 percent in the spare parts division. The workers hired through
contractors who have already worked in the plant for years still get
re-issued a card with their photograph every three months. On the
card with the Hero Honda stamp is written that they have the
permission to work on the company premises (meaning that the card is
not an official proof of company ID, necessary for a lot of dealings
with administrations). In the name of ESI 206 Rupees are currently
cut from monthly the wages, but no worker has received an ESI card;
the contractor says that if a worker gets ill, we will get him
treated. No PF slips are issued. Daily the spare parts division sends
out parts worth 40 to 50,000,000 Rs. There is constant pressure to
fulfil the immediate massive demands of the dealers on time. The
finished parts are ordered from external suppliers. In the factory
there is only coding, counting, packing and sealing machines ; there
are no machines to produce parts in the spare parts division. The
workers hired through contractors used to get 2,600 Rs, and a year
earlier I saw a supervisor slapping a worker. Last year after the
trouble at Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) the wage of
the workers hired through contractors at Hero Honda was raised to
3,600 Rs. Then after some deductions some workers received 3,600 Rs
and some 4,200 Rs. Then the contractor refused to take back some
workers who had been on holiday. The wildcat strike happened after
that. The call to stop work on 15th of April was not made by a union,
there were no leaders. The management sent the permanent workers
immediately into holiday. The state government immediately got into
gear, remembering the troubles at Honda HMSI in June 2005. There were
talks of setting the factory on fire... Some people were chosen from
the workers and on 20th of April a verbal agreement was given,
stating, amongst others: that workers would get a 30 percent wage
increase, that 500 workers would be made permanent and that white
uniforms would be given to all workers. The workers who announced
this agreement to the others disappeared from the factory; they were
allegedly bought off by the company. Anger prevailed amongst the
4,000 out of 5,500 workers who arrived at the factory in order to
work on 21st of April, "We have been cheated". When the strike ended
at Hero Honda, the workers of a Honda supplier in turn occupied
'their' factory, situated 20 km away. 4. Glimpse on the structure
of Shivam Autotech company Shivam Autotech Ltd. (http://
www.shivamautotech.com/) based at Binola Village (Gurgaon district)
is part of the Hero Group owned by the Munjals. The factory is
situated close to the NH8 highway, about 20 km south from the Hero
Honda plant. About 80 percent of Shivam's production goes to Hero
Honda. Shivam Autotech is engaged in manufacturing of Hot / Warm and
Cold Forging Components. On the 10th of August 2005 Mark Auto
Components (MAC), a two-wheeler components manufacturer promoted by
the Hero Group, had decided to spin off its Binola unit in Haryana
into a separate company named Shivam Autotech allowing it to focus on
its forging business activity. According to workers met on the 12th
of June 2006 the company only changed its name on 1st of April 2006.
The workers are still wearing MAC uniforms as uniforms are
distributed each year only in November - December. The factory is
fairly new, production started at 2000. There are about 300 permanent
workers, 350 contract/casual workers and 150 trainees. Permanent and
Trainee workers all have either ITI certificates or B.Sc degrees.
Casual/workers hired through contractors have ITI certificates but
none have B.Sc degrees. Permanent workers get a salary of Rs 3000
(net) which must be about Rs 4000 gross they say. A miniscule 2-4% of
workers may get salaries up to Rs 8000 net. Workers hired through
contractors only get the Haryana minimum wage rates of Rs 2400 and
even then the canteen charges are deducted from this amount. Since
the work involves forging and metal work, there are no women in the
workforce (there are some in the managerial staff). Workers say that
Shivam uses CNC machines of various technological levels. The
contractors at Shivam are R.N.V. Enterprises, N.N. Associates and
Ravipul Enterprise. Just as a piece of information: a supervisor who
works for one of the contractors said that he gets 5,000 Rs wage per
month in order to manage the workers hired through contractors, to
hire them and ensure a sufficient supply of new work-force. 5.
Strike at Shivam Autotech There are various interesting elements in
the Shivam Autotech strike. First of all is the fact that it started
at the very same day when the occupation at Hero Honda finished.
Unfortunately we can only speculate why this happened. Workers must
have noticed the impact of the Hero Honda strike, which might have
contributed to their decision. When the management decided not to
send the buses for the next shift, which is more or less a clear move
to a lock-out, it might have thought that now is the time to battle
things out, with the main client paralyzed by industrial dispute. The
management's strategy not to send the buses to the villages of the
workers is an often used practise. Many bigger local companies prefer
to or exclusively hire people who live in villages further away,
workers who depend on bus services and who can be left isolated in
case of industrial action. It is also interesting to see that 'small'
things like the food question became the trigger for a conflict with
much more pressing problems in the background. The fact that workers
know about the conditions and higher wages in the main Honda plants
and refer to these standards when they put forward demands is of
major importance. During the struggle it looked like that workers
managed to stay together, despite their contractual differences and
despite the attempts of the management to single out
'representatives', which then could be bought off like in the Hero
Honda case. The final outcome of the struggle, which turned into a
rather boggy negotiation process, excluded the workers hired through
contractors from the wage hike. a) Prelude of the unrest Workers
had been unhappy since February 2006 since they got increments which
were very small about Rs 70 only, whereas the increments of
managerial staff were nearly 50% of their salary and the workers'
increment amounted to only 2-4% of their salaries. Workers were also
unhappy since managers were not treated them well on the shop floor.
One new trainee was made to sit like a murga (chicken) on the shop
floor on making a small mistake. Another senior worker was slapped by
a senior engineer. For 2 years the workers had been requesting
management to extend the company bus service up to Bhiwadi
(Rajasthan) which was only 3-4 kms from the last pick up at
Dharuhera. However the company had been steadfastly refusing since
this meant the bus would have to cross state borders and the company
did not want to pay the additional taxes etc. to the Rajasthan
government. This was a big problem for the workers since Bhiwadi was
much cheaper for them to live in and many were complaining that had
the company extended the bus service up to Bhiwadi many employees
would have shifted there and would have been able to buy their own
houses since land was cheap there at that time. Now the same land
which was selling for Rs 1000 is selling for Rs 10,000 in June 2006.
After the recent SEZ deals the price will have gone up even more.
Workers were unhappy that management was unwilling to seriously
discuss these issues during the open houses that were held in the
company. They were strictly told to only talk about production issues
during open houses and the bus service or financial matters would not
be discussed. Another ongoing problem was the food in the canteen.
Ever since management decided to tear down the old smaller canteen
and build a new canteen with new food supplier there were problems
with quality of food and standards of hygiene. Workers complained
that bugs and cockroaches were found in the food. A canteen committee
was formed to address these problems. Meetings would be held,
management would tell the canteen manager to fix the problems, he'd
promise to fix it but there would be no improvement. The workers also
complained that food served to staff (staff and workers had different
canteen timings) never had these problems and bugs were only found
when it was time for workers' meals. The catalyst for all grievances
crystallizing into a strike unfolded on a Sunday. Cockroaches were
found in the dal [lentils] served to the workers. A worker went up to
the canteen staff and asked them to stop serving the dal. It was
stopped. But after some time, some workers came up to one of the
members of the canteen committee and said that the dal was being
served again. Satish now went up to the manager and told him to stop
serving this dal. He was promised that new dal would be cooked and
then workers could have their meal. However, all workers trooped out
of the canteen offended at being served the roach-ridden dal again
and again. This resulted in management action against the worker who
was a canteen committee member. Over the next few days he was called
by different managerial staff time and again and asked that when you
were present why did you allow the workers to leave the canteen? Why
didn't they wait for the new dal to be served? Tired of being treated
like this, the workers decided that they would place their demands
before management and drafted a list of 21 demands, including issues
of increment, contract workers' problems, bus service, canteen
service, etc. The workers hired through contractors demanded to be
made permanent and to be allowed to wear the same uniforms as the
permanents. b) Chronology of the unrest 21st of April 2006
Workers arriving at bus stops for the 6 a.m. shift found that there
were no buses. They started calling the workers who were working the
night shift to find out why buses had not been sent to the bus
stops. They also called the security staff directly. Workers for the
6a.m. shift used private means of conveyance to show up at the
factory only to be told by the security staff that they should go
home as they were being given a holiday. Workers had problems
believing this since they didn't even get Sundays off (trainings were
scheduled on this day. This was another bone of contention that
training should be held during company time and not on their only day
off). Night shift workers were being asked to get their production
figures noted and leave the premises. Security staff told them - why
are you worried about the 6 a.m. shift? Those workers will report to
duty when they show up. However, sensing that something was wrong,
these workers, 600 of them, sat down on one side of the shop floor.
Meanwhile, about 100-200 workers were gathered at the gate outside
and not being allowed in. A fight erupted between workers and the
security supervisor. So the workers declared a strike. They occupied
the factory for 5 days. A list of demands was handed over to the
general manager, the vice president and human resource manager. The
canteen was allowed to run for 2 days but after that it was shut down
by management. Food was not allowed in from the outside either. It
turned into a case of hunger strike for the striking workers even
though small quantities of food managed to get smuggled in. Permanent
workers and contract workers came together to occupy the plant for 5
days. They have been together in this fight ever since. All 3
categories of workers are united - permanent, trainees and casuals/
workers hired through contractors. Permanent workers have been
conscious of including contract workers from the start and have paid
attention to their grievances and demands as well. 22nd to 25th of
April 2006 During this time the Labour officer (B.S. Yadav - sits
in the mini secretariat and Binola village comes under his circle)
and management tried to negotiate with the workers. The Deputy
Labour Commissioner arrived on the 4th day. A higher AITUC official
also visited the workers. Together all of them brokered the strike
to be broken on the 5th day - 25th of April. See copies of
agreement. c) Negotiation process Workers had submitted paperwork
to register an independent union. The first set of applications was
'lost' by the labour office. A second set of application papers has
been submitted but again it has run into roadblocks. There was one
meeting with the DLC when he came to the plant on 24th of April.
Another meeting was held on 8th of June when he asked the workers to
resubmit 5 copies of the list of demands but this time to exclude the
items on which an agreement has already been reached. He also asked
the workers to submit an authorization letter signed by all workers,
that they authorize the 5-10 workers to serve as their
representatives and will abide by whatever agreement these workers
hammer out with the management on their behalf. Workers were expected
to submit these papers to the Labour Officer, B.S. Yadav, by 13th
June. There have been several meetings with the management. Workers
were asked to sign a 3 year agreement whereby the workers would get
small increments but agree not to ask for salary raises for the next
3 years. The workers submitted a Rs 10,000 package for 3 years under
which all workers would get a Rs 5000 raise in the first year, Rs
3000 raise in the 2nd year and Rs 2000 raise in the 3rd year.
Management has not accepted this proposal and is only willing to talk
about Rs 1000-1500 raises in total over 3 years. This is
unacceptable to the workers. Mr. L.R. Parudhi, legal advisor to the
Munjal Group has been inducted into the management team and has
declared that he will not allow salaries to rise. Workers are also
unhappy with his inclusion and would like to include a legal advisor
in their team since Mr. Parudhi talks legal mumbo-jumbo during the
meetings which the workers don't understand and therefore stalls the
negotiations. Workers also report that the financial negotiations are
stuck because management wants to know why they should raise the
workers' salaries by so much when the prevailing rates at nearby
plants are not this high. Workers compare it to the Hero Honda plant
in Dharuhera which does have an independent union and where the
prevailing salary is much higher. Workers tell that permanent workers
there get Rs 25,000 and workers hired through contractors get Rs
6,000. Even at the Gurgaon plant of Hero Honda, permanent workers get
Rs 18,000 and contract workers get nearly Rs 6,000. According to the
agreement signed on 26th of April 2006, the 10th of June 2006 was the
last date by which all negotiations were to be completed and
agreement to be reached. However, 10th of June has come and gone and
negotiations are stalled on the financial aspect. The DLC has asked
the workers to sit quietly as he is working on their behalf.
Meanwhile, the workers have been asked to re-submit the same
documents to the LO and are now starting to feel that they are being
given the run-around. Workers are being called in groups of 2-4 and
management is trying to persuade them to agree to a works committee
and drop the demand for forming a union. In exchange they'll be given
money. Sometimes workers are asked by senior engineers to come with
them to off-site places just to hangout and have a chat, only to find
that when they get there, management is also there and tries to
persuade them to drop plans for union formation. Sometimes 2-3
workers are picked up and driven to some place where again they are
persuaded/intimidated to drop union formation plans. Workers report
that so far they are all together and they are trying to counter
management efforts to break them and/or create misunderstandings
among them by creating very strong channels of communication amongst
themselves. All proceedings of meetings/dealings etc with management
are duly reported to the workers. They also try to go in a bigger
group of 10 to 25 workers to the negotiation appointments d)
Outcome With the end of the strike a short first agreement was
signed, the workers ensuring work discipline and the managers that
training would henceforth take place within regular office hours, not
on Sundays. Bus service would be provided until Bhiwadi. There would
be special food twice a week, like the staff gets. Later on workers
representatives signed a settlement with management for Rs 2700 wage
increase over 3 years (far less than the Rs 10,000 package they had
presented management). They get 60% increase this year, and 20%
increase each year after that. There is a reworked incentive scheme.
Unfortunately, the workers hired through contractors are not covered
in the wage hike, but they do get to participate in the productivity
incentive scheme. Another outcome is that the management decided to
replace all security guards. In general they have been too supportive
of the workers during the strike. e) Short visit at KDR, a supplier
of Shivam Autotech in Faridabad From a truck driver who had to
return the metal parts during the strike at Shivam Autotech we got to
know that Shivam is supplied by KDR Forgings in Faridabad,
Ballabhgarh twice a day. The KDR workers must have noticed the
strike. The industrial area of Ballabhgarh already looks more like
second tier suppliers, no nice architectural lay-out and nice facades
like at Shivam. KDR is about 70 km away from Shivam; the truck drive
takes about one and a half hours. Our info is based on very brief
chats with a couple of workers at the gate as they were entering the
morning shift, with the head of security who came to check what we
were up to, and with a worker whom we talked to later in some detail.
KDR Forgings is a medium sized factory in the vast industrial belt
beyond Faridabad, at Plot No. 32 sector 25, Faridabad. It's owned by
one Rajesh Juneja, who along with his family owns 8 factories in
Ballabhgarh, four that do forging work, three that do more final CNC
work on the gears and one lower down in the production chain where
iron sariyas (forged parts) are made. From Juneja's CNC factories,
the product is sent also to America. However, of this particular KDR
unit, Munjal's Shivam Autotech is among their two main buyers, the
other being QH Talbros, also located in Faridabad. KDR Forgings has
about 160 workers, who work in 2 shifts of 12 hours each, 8 am to 8
pm to 8 am. Only about 7-8 are permanent, the rest are directly
employed by the company, not through a contractor, but not permanent.
Their wage levels are about 2,000 for a helper and Rs 2,500-3,500 for
an operator. The one worker we spoke to in detail was a final checker
who earns Rs 7,000 presumably for a 12 hour shift work. Concerning
the strike at Shivam, those we spoke to said that yes they had known
of it because the parts from the factory had come back. During those
days, they did work for other buyers. However, since Shivam is such a
major buyer, it meant that production was lower than usual. Workers
during those days worked only for 8 hour shifts. However since they
seem to be regular workers and not contract, there were no lay-offs
for the 5 days.
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3) According to Plan - General information on the development of the
region or on certain company policies "Red Flags and Welfare
Schemes" - The 1st of May, a great day for symbols and symbolic
announcements. Mayday is the public day when to praise or re-claim
labour, the day which allows those in power to ignore the plight of
the labourers during the rest of the year. A day of symbolic parades
and airy announcements. A friend reported that 300 people took part
in the Mayday demonstration, which paraded through Okhla industrial
estate. Every morning 200,000 people march in a long tired procession
through one of the several entry point of this textile industrial
area in the south of Delhi (see report in this newsletter). No red
flags, but thousands of pent up demands. According to a worker active
in the union in Gurgaon 2,000 to 3,000 took part in a Mayday
celebration. The Haryana government used the occasion of the 1st of
May to announce further paper tigers, further welfare scheme for the
local workers. We will have to see whether an increase of the minimum
wage actually makes a difference in every day life (see report from a
call centre cleaner below), how many people actually receive the
announced benefits. On one hand we can see that the majority of
workers are employed outside the legal frame-work, on the other hand
there is an actual wage pressure in certain sectors (e.g. skilled
industrial workers), due to the boom. The Haryana government
announced two welfare schemes, a) a health insurance scheme for
building workers of the "unorganised sector" and b) a housing scheme
for industrial workers: a) "After a hefty hike of about 37 per
cent in minimum wages this year, the state government has decided to
give welfare cover to all labourers and workers engaged in the
unorganised sector by realising a cess of one per cent on all
constructions whose value is Rs 10 lakh or more. This amount will be
purely meant for the welfare of construction labourers, who get
engaged in the work for 90 days at a stretch. This will benefit
around three lakh persons involved in such work at any given time of
the year. It would cover various risk factors, including mediclaim
and insurance. The money would also be used to set up night shelters
and other facilities for the beneficiaries. These were non-existent
so far. At least 30,000 works of this nature were in progress in the
state at any given time, claimed the authorities concerned. It is
stated any worker desirous of availing the benefit of the scheme was
required to submit an affidavit. There was no need of any attestation
from anyone. The authorities have revealed employers or owners of
buildings who fail to follow the new rule will be dealt with strictly
as this rule envisages imprisonment of three months, a penalty of
about Rs 25,000 or both" and b) "The Haryana Government has decided
to construct labour colonies near the major industrial townships
under a new state plan scheme "Construction of Labour Colonies in
Industrial Estates, Parks and Towns" for the convenience of the
labourers. A sum of Rs. 50 lakh has been earmarked for the
scheme". "Extreme Outsourcing"- Because of rising rents and
wages, local call centres make use of internet cafes in order to
outsource work. The boom in BPO (Business Process Outsourcing –
e.g. of call centre work) creates demands amongst workers and the
boom in real estate gnaws on the boom of BPO. Recently bosses of
local call centres and BPO companies complained about a) rising
rents, b) rising wages of the IT/BPO workers and c) about additional
costs due to toll-taking highwayman on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway.
They try to counteract the rising costs by d) out-sourcing night
shift work to internet cafes e) finding new fields of outsourcing f)
rationalizing the hiring process g) putting more pressure on the
wages of the rest of the work-force, e.g. cleaners, security
guards. a) rising rents In a newspaper article of the 12th of
April Mr.Kapoor, a directing manager of a local BPO complaints:
“Apart from availing the large English speaking talent pool to run
their businesses, companies headed towards India for its affordable
real estate, too, as BPOs require large areas of real estate compared
to other businesses. But, in the last couple of years, India has
almost lost the advantage. In cities like Gurgaon, Delhi and
Bangalore, the rentals are almost equal to that in US. In Gurgaon,
the rental in SEZ is Rs 75 sq ft per month which is more than $ 1.5
in US. In US, one will get ready to move in facilities where as in
India one has to invest to refurnish the entire space". b) rising
wages Another article on the same day states that IT-wages in booming
Gurgaon have become the highest in India: "Salaries of IT
professionals in Gurgaon, which has seen an IT boom only in the last
few years, are the highest in India and comparable to that in IT
capital Bangalore, a survey by CyberMedia-Dice has found. The average
annual salary of job-seeking IT professionals in Gurgaon is Rs 6 lakh
plus, while in Bangalore it is Rs 6 lakh. This leaves Delhi far
behind at Rs 4.89 lakh". Also the wages of the call centre workers
increased in the bigger call centre hubs: "Wages have increased 15-20
per cent in the last three years and continue to rise. A newcomer
joining a call-centre in a metro is likely to be paid anywhere
between Rs 15,000 and 18,000". One way to counteract the rising local
wages is to re-located work to other places. In May the market-
research company Azure advertises jobs for Spanish speaking people in
Gurgaon, who are ready to move to Ahmedabad. The wages offered are
17,000 Rs per months for a full-time job, which is about 8,000 Rs
less than the rate in Gurgaon or Noida. c) rising tolls Apart from
rents and wages the call centre operator in Gurgaon will also have to
pay more for getting their workers driven to work. The expressway was
built by private developers who rejected state subsidies; instead
they will introduce a toll system. An article on the 2nd of May says:
"What’s spurring the increasing interest [of private developers] in
road projects are rosy traffic projections. Says Subroto Choudhary,
executive director, DS Constructions that gave a negative grant [to
the state] of Rs 61 crore to construct the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway:
'Our models suggested a manifold increase in traffic density on the
(Delhi-Gurgaon) stretch. In fact, passenger car unit density at the
time of tendering (2001) was 60,000 and that number now stands at 1.3
lakh. With this kind of traffic, toll collections would enable us to
comfortably cover all our costs, including the negative grant'". d)
outsourced again Some friends wrote the following description of an
internet cafe in the Delhi area which was transformed into an
outsourced call centre unit at night. This is one way how the
managers of the local BPO industry try to curb the wage pressure from
below: "Microgate internet-cafe is located in the basement of a three-
story building, easily one of the better constructions of the area.
Narrow steps lead to a tin door, which is usually open at all times.
The ten feet by ten feet basement hall is divided into four sections:
A small reception area next to the stairs, a cubicle with a table and
a revolving chair for Guddu, the owner, a small empty space, where
the technical and managerial staff of the cafe sleep at night, and a
hall, which is the main cafe space. Guddu provides better services
than many cafes of the locality. There is round-the-clock supply of
water, electricity and internet connectivity at Microgate. One night,
a couple of weeks ago, we used Microgate's services to send off a few
urgent emails. It was late and by midnight we were the only
customers. Some of the staff were dozing on makeshift beds in the
sleeping corner and most of the lights had been switched off. At
about 1:00 PM however, people started trickling in young men, in
one's and two's, sometimes a helmet in hand. They began taking
position on the vacant seats, behind the till now blank screens.
Before long, a semi-American accent was confirming participation in
Pope John's funeral. A few months before, a middle level manager of
an elite international call centre contacted Guddu. The proposition
was to share some load of that call centre in return for sum of forty
thousand rupees a month. Guddu agreed. He hired some out-of-work and
some working agents who had prior experience of the industry on
'payment on performance' basis, from 2:00 AM till 10:00 AM. With no
frills of dinner and snacks, pick-up or drop, and no facilities like
toilets, cash coupons or tickets to multiplexes, Guddu operates an
'international call centre'. He manages a complete gamut of campaigns
and products, just like any other Business Process Outsourcing unit
in Noida and Gurgaon. For the agents of this international call
centre, there is no accent training, minimal process training, and a
more informal relationship with the boss. Unlike many other premium
call centres, less monitoring, supervision and surveillance takes
place here, even as the work contract is more fragile. The call
centre aspect of the operations of the cyber cafe has been closed
since last week for about one month now, as the contract has expired;
and while Guddu finalises his deal with the next company, his team of
agents has moved on". ("Chronicling the Remote Agent: Reflections on
Mobility and Social Security of Call Centre Agents in New Delhi” by
von Taha Mehmood und Iram Ghufram) e) finding new fields of out-
sourcing Local BPO companies try to find new markets, after the
market for straight-forward telephone services is saturated. From a
newspaper article: (17th of May 2007)"In an office in the southern
port city of Chennai, Indian analysts pore over stock market data for
a London-based fund company, searching for investment opportunities.
Some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) away in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of
Delhi, Indian lawyers have taken over research and patent filing for
several Western technology and healthcare companies. Patent research
can be done in India at $50 to $80 an hour, compared with $150 to
$350 in the United States, said R. Sivadas, chief executive of Scope
e-Knowledge Centre Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai. Average billing rates in the
knowledge process sector are 40 to 50 percent higher than those in
the call centres". f) rationalize the hiring process A little story
from a job interview at Teleperformance call centre, Gurgaon, Udyog
Vihar Phase One. The entrance room is chilled, so is the woman at the
front desk. Four young men sit silently in a circle of chairs, they
do not talk to each other during the whole next hour. They came for a
so-called "walk-in" interview, the equivalent to a drive-in, it
seems. Fast job, fast food. From their age one would guess that it is
their first job, they seem nervous. From the next room we can sudden
cheering and applause, but it sounds like a routine, like on command.
Then the already hired invisible agents start to sing a Michael
Jackson song. May be this is how they try to heat silenced young men
and women up for their coming verbal piece-work. After an hour the
front desk lady tells the first young man to enter the glass-front
meeting room in the middle and to pick up the receiver. We all can
hear the phone ringing inside the room. The young man enters and
starts to talk, with a submissive facial expression. After two
minutes he leaves the booth, his face now expressing disillusionment.
"Not short-listed", he mumbles and leaves the building. The next one
enters. The same process and outcome. It took four minutes for the HR
person on the other end of the line to single them out. Not suitable
for international calls, yet. The third one is successful; he can sit
down again and wait for his face-to-face interview. g) pressure
on service workers' wages Another way for the management to lower
costs is to put pressure on those workers who have a less favourable
bargaining power than the actual call centre employees, e.g. the
cleaning and house keeping workers. A less symbolic move around the
1st of May 2007 was undertaken by the management of the BPO company
Evalueserve, First India Place, MG Road Gurgaon. The company changed
the contractor of the house keeping and cleaning workers. The workers
did not loose their jobs, they were just shifted from one pay-roll to
the other, but they suffered a severe cut in wages. While the Haryana
government uses the 1st of May to portray itself as 'worker
friendly', these workers who do the cleaning job in one of Haryana’s
model KPOs (knowledge business outsourcing: see article above)
companies do not receive the new Haryana minimum wage of 3,500 Rs,
instead their wage is cut by 500 Rs, from 2,500 Rs to now 2,000 Rs.
They also only get the canteen food left-over by the call centre
employees, meaning that often enough there is only stale or no food
at all. When asked for an ESI card or PF slip the contractor answers:
"Tomorrow, tomorrow". Six months ago the land-lord increased the rent
for a plastic-tarpaulin jhuggi from 700 Rs to 800 Rs. A proper stone-
built room in the same area is about 1,200 Rs, meaning that for the
land-lord the jhuggis are much more profitable... (for more info on
the local call centre world: see newsletter no.1) Corporate
Watch On the web-site (www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com) you
can find some news items on the following multi-national companies in
Gurgaon area, just click on "List of Companies." The list is boring
in a general sense and it smells like shareholders oi-stress sweat,
but it might possibly be useful once shit hits the fan or a picket
the factory gate. For a longer list of companies situated in Gurgaon
have a look at the web-site as well. News items this month on: DGM
India GVK Bioscience House of Pearl IKEA Maruti Promed TCI
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4) About the Project - Updates on Gurgaon Workers News Hindi
Version, One - Introduction of the Hindi version of the Gurgaon
Workers News, about to be distributed in the area If you want to
get hold of an electronic version of the Hindi Gurgaon Workers News,
please drop us an e-mail. Intro When Politicians, Employers or
other leaders talk about development, about economic progress or
'Shining India', they mean places like Gurgaon. They mean rising DLF
towers, the growth rate of Maruti or Hero Honda, the increase in
textile export. They also mean, but do not mention, the shanty towns
of the building workers, the 12 to 16 hours day of the factory
workers, the people displaced for the SEZ. When they talk about
progress, they mean the six-lane expressway, the computer programmed
stitching machine in Udyog Vihar, the automatic-dialler in the call
centre. They also mean, but do not mention, that for most of us their
progress will result in further submission, their expressway only an
accident-prone way to a pro-longed night-shift, their computer
controlled machine the rhythm-stick which makes us move faster and
faster. It is time for us, those who construct, tailor, weld,
assemble their progress, to find our own way to a better life.
Together, we have the experience we need, we just have to start
sharing it and use it in future struggles. We came from Bengal,
Bihar, UP or the long way from the work on the fields or in our
traditional crafts in the nearby village. With the help of friends
and family we managed to find a first place to stay in this strange
new place called Gurgaon. We have worked in small work-shops, or
through contractors in big factories, we have sold vegetables or
cigarettes on the market. We manage to raise children, despite the
water-shortage, despite the pressure from the landlord, despite the
little income. We have found ways with other work-mates to resist the
managers pressure to make us work on Sundays. We have seen the police
repression at Honda Manesar. We might have failed to make the
contractor pay our outstanding wages, but we have learnt for the next
time. The aim of this monthly publication is to share workers'
experiences. It is independent from any organisation, party, union.
It is meant to tell about conditions in companies or living areas in
Gurgaon. We can use it to tell others about problems with certain
contractors or administrations, about successful or unsuccessful
attempts to resist harassment by authorities or to enforce better
working conditions. Given that most of the companies in Gurgaon have
links with the rest of the world (textile for export, call centres
call abroad, multi-national automobile companies), we also want to
publish related workers' news from other countries. You can show or
read the publication to your friends, neighbours and co-workers. You
can tell us or write to us your own story, anonymously. This can be a
first step to build new relation-ships and links amongst each other.
Links which are stronger than their games to play us off against each
other: permanents against workers hired through contractors, locals
against outsiders, Hindus against Muslims and so on. In this issue
there are two stories, one from workers employed as security guards
in Gurgaon and one about a struggle at Fashion Express, a textile
factory in Gurgaon Udyog Vihar Phase I, plot 100.
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Glossary AITUC BPO CITU Casual Workers Contract Workers Crore DA DC
ESI Exchange Rate HSIIDC Jhuggi Lakh (see Crore) Lay off Minimum Wage
Panchayat PF Ration Card SP Staff Trainees VRS Wages and Prices
Workers hired through contractors AITUC The All India Trade Union
Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union federation in India and
one of the five largest. It was founded in 1919 and until 1945, when
unions became organised on party lines, it was the central trade
union organisation in India. Since then it has been affiliated with
the Communist Party of India. BPO Business Process Outsourcing: for
example of call centre work, market research, sales. CITU Centre of
Indian Trade Unions, a national central trade union federation in
India. Politically attached to CPI(M), Communist Party of India
(Marxist). Founded in 1970, membership of 2.8 million. Casual
Workers Workers hired by the company for a limited period of time.
Contract Workers Workers hired for a specific performance, paid for
the performance. Crore 1 Crore = 10,000,000 1 Lakh =
100,000 DA (Dearness Allowance): An inflation compensation.
Each three to six months the state government checks the general
price development and accordingly pays an allowance on top of
wages. DC Deputy Commissioner, Head of the District
Administration. ESI (Employee's State Insurance): Introduced in
1948, meant to secure employee in case of illness, long-term
sickness, industrial accidents and to provide medical facilities (ESI
Hospitals) to insured people. Officially the law is applicable to
factories employing 10 or more people. Employers have to contribute
4.75 percent of the wage paid to the worker, the employee 1.75
percent of their wage. Officially casual workers or workers hired
through contractors who work in the factory (even if it is for
construction, maintenance or cleaning work on the premises) are
entitled to ESI, as well. Self-employment is often used to undermine
ESI payment. Exchange Rate: 1 US-Dollar = 43 Rs (March 2007) 1 Euro
= 57 Rs (March 2007) HSIIDC Haryana State Industrial and
Infrastructure Development Corporation Jhuggi Slum Hut Lakh see
Crore Lay off Lay off in the Indian context means that workers have
to mark attendance, but they actually do not work and receive only
half of the wage. Minimum Wage: Official minimum wage in Haryana in
March 2007 is about 2,500 Rs per month for an unskilled worker, based
on an 8 hour day and 4 days off per month. Panchayat A locally
elected village administrative body in charge of village-level
issues. PF (Employee's Provident Fund): Introduced in 1952, meant
to provide a pension to workers. Officially applicable to all
companies employing more than 20 people. Official retirement age is
58 years. Given that most of the casual workers belong to the regular
workforce of a factory, they are entitled to the Provident Fund, as
well. So are workers employed by contractors. If workers receive
neither PF nor ESI they also do not show up in the official
documents, meaning that officially they do not exist. Ration Card
Officially the so called 'governmental fair price shops' are shops
were 'officially poor' people can buy basic items (wheat, rice,
kerosene etc.) for fixed and allegedly lower prices. In order to be
able to buy in the shops you need a ration card. The ration card is
also necessary as a proof of residency, but in order to obtain the
ration card you have to proof your residency. Catch22. Local politics
use the ration depots and cards as a power tool which reaches far
into the working class communities. Depot holders are normally
working in the hands of local political leaders, in return they
receive this privileged position, which often enable them to make
money on the side. SP Superintendent of Police, Head of the
District Police. Staff In India staff includes managers,
supervisors, security personnel and white-collar workers. Trainees
In general trainees work as normal production workers, they might
have a six month up to two-year contract. Depending on the company
they are promised permanent employment after passing the trainee
period. Their wages are often only slightly higher than those of
workers hired through contractors. VRS (Voluntary Retirement
Scheme): Often a rather involuntary scheme to get rid of permanent
workers. Particularly the VRS at Maruti in Gurgaon made this clear,
when 35 year olds were sent in early retirement. Wages and Prices:
When we hear that a cleaner in a call centre in Gurgaon, an
industrial worker in Faridabad or a rikshaw-driver in Delhi earns
2,000 Rs for a 70 hour week, which is about the average normal
worker’s wage, we have to bear in mind that they often came from West
Bengal, Bihar or other remote place in order to get this job. In
order to put 2,000 Rs into a daily context here are some prices of
goods and services: - Monthly rent for a plastic-tarpaulin hut shared
by two people in Gurgaon: 800 Rs - Monthly rent for a small room in
Gurgaon (without kitchen), toilet and bathroom shared by five
families: 1,300 Rs - Monthly rent for a small room in a new building
in central Gurgaon, single toilet and bathroom: 4,500 Rs to 8,000 Rs
- Half a kilo red lentils on the local market: 25 Rs - Kilo rice on
local market: 14 Rs - 1 Kilo Onions and 1 Kilo carrots on local
market: 25 to 30 Rs - McChicken: 40 Rs - Bus ticket to nearest bigger
bus stop in South Delhi: 14 Rs - Daily Newspaper: 3 Rs - One hour
internet in a cafe: 20 Rs - Bottle (0,7l) of beer at Haryana Wine and
Beer shop: 50 to 70 Rs - Cigarettes (10), cheapest local brand: 25 Rs
- Cinema (new) ticket Saturday night: 160 Rs - single entry for
swimming pool: 100 Rs - Starbucks Coffee (Latte Medium) in Shopping
Mall: 59 Rs - Faulty shirt on Faridabad local market: 40 Rs - Single
gas cooker plus new 2 litre gas cylinder: 720 Rs - Re-fill gas (2
litres - once every month and a half): 100Rs - Second-hand bicycle:
600 to 1,000 Rs - Two simple steel pots: 250 Rs - One litre Diesel:
30 Rs - Driving license in Haryana: 2,000 to 2,500 Rs - Start package
pre-paid mobile phone (without the phone) 300 Rs - Phone call to
other mobile phones: 1 Rs - Minimum dowry poor workers have to pay
for the marriage of their daughter: 30,000 Rs (80,000 Rs more likely)
- One month mobile phone flat rate: 1,500 Rs - Compaq Laptop: 50,000
Rs - Flight Delhi to London: 28,000 Rs - cheapest Hero Honda motor-
bike (150 cc): around 40,000 Rs - Ford Fiesta: 587,000 Rs - four
hours on Gurgaon golf course: 800 Rs (info from golf course worker
earning 2,400 Rs monthly) - Two-Bedroom Apartment in Gurgaon:
3,000,000 to 5,000,000 Rs Workers hired through contractors Similar
to temporary workers, meaning that they work (often for long periods)
in one company but are officially employed by a contractor from whom
they also receive their wages. Are supposed to be made permanent
after 240 days of continuous employment in the company, according to
the law. A lot of companies only have a licence for employing workers
in auxiliary departments, such as canteen or cleaning. Companies
usually find ways to get around these legal restrictions, e.g.,
workers services are terminated on the 239th day to avoid workers
reaching eligibility criteria to become permanent. In many industries
contract workers account for 60 to 80 per cent of the work force,
their wage is 1/4 to 1/6 of the permanents’ wage.
News from the Special Exploitation Zone -
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