Workers of the India’s Central Warehousing Corporation’s plant in Patparganj, Delhi, demonstrated outside the company’s corporate office on Tuesday, March 9, demanding the reinstatement of 318 employees who were dismissed without prior notice. The workers were mobilized by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
About 300 of them were manual laborers at the plant and the remaining operated machines for loading and unloading. Many of them had been employed for as long as 30 years. On the morning of January 6, they were not allowed to enter the plant and were informed that they had been dismissed by the state-owned enterprise.
“We worked for the whole of the 5th, but the management did not tell us anything that day. When we returned on the 6th, we found a battalion of police stationed at the gate. They did not even let us gather at the gate. They chased us away citing COVID-19,” 48-year-old Rajesh Paswan, who has been working at the plant since 1995, told Peoples Dispatch.
The workers were told that they were not needed any more because about 200 other non-unionized workers were brought into the plant at night to replace them. Many of these new workers are allegedly 16 and 17 year olds, who can be paid less than 59 year-old Barsati, who has been working here since 1991. His wage, after all the statutory deductions, was adding up to a little over Rs. 13,000 (USD 179.126) per month.
“The management has been using contractors since 1985. In my 30 years of service, I have seen many contractors come and go, but we workers have remained. This new contractor who took charge on January 6, threw us out summarily,” he said.
It was only on January 23 that their wages for the month of November and December 2020 were paid, he said. “For two months, we were not paid, but we still worked because we were assured the payment would be made,” he added. His family of eight now is surviving on this payment, which was eventually made only after his dismissal.
Addressing the demonstration, Anurag Saxena, CITU’s Delhi State Secretary said, “Over the last three months, our union has written letters to the managing director four times. He did not even think it necessary to respond to a single one of them.”
“We even met the Chief Labor Commissioner of the central government,” he added. “But till date, he has not been able to resolve this. What message is the government sending out? That it is okay to blatantly violate the labor laws, and the government will take no action to enforce it?”
“We are going to die of hunger without a job, sir. We do not fear corona”
Disrupting his speech, the police intervened, claiming that the workers did not have the permission to hold the demonstration. Despite the union members showing documents, the police refused to let the meeting continue citing COVID-19 restrictions. This prompted a worker to respond, “We are going to die of hunger without a job, sir. We do not fear corona.” A brief scuffle broke out which ended when the police inspector assured the workers that he would try to arrange a meeting between them and the management if they held the protest on the sidewalk rather than at the entrance to the office.
Addressing the workers, CITU’s Delhi President, Virender Gaur pointed out how the company was violating labor laws. “We are here on a peaceful demonstration to demand its enforcement [labor laws]. The police should support us instead of trying to disperse the demonstration,” he said.
He concluded his address by declaring that “if the Central Warehousing Corporation is to keep functioning, then the workers should retain their jobs. We will not allow the managers to sit in their air-conditioned office when the workers are being thrown out of this company’s plants. If workers are not reinstated, then we will ensure that the managers’ office is also shut down.”
Solidarity messages were also delivered at the demonstration by unionists leading the struggles of the workers in Delhi Jal board – which is a state government agency responsible for potable water supply in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) – and the Domestic Breeding Checkers (DBCs) hired by the Municipality to control the spread of malaria.
The long battle ahead
By then, Saxena and Barsati, who heads the CITU’s unit in the company’s plant, returned to the demonstration after having a meeting with the management inside the office.
Reporting to the workers about the discussion in the meeting, Saxena said that the Deputy General Manager, Pavan Kumar, patiently heard their complaints and assured that the management will consider their demands, and ensure the new contractor does not violate the workers’ rights. Other issues, including the withholding of the workers’ bonuses and the health benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) since the last eight months were also discussed.
The ninth reconciliation meeting at the Regional Labor Commissioner’s office was scheduled on Friday, March 12. If this quasi-legal forum, which is the first dispute resolution body, fails to settle the issue, the matter can be escalated to the labor tribunal or court. Both parties can challenge its verdict in the High Court and then in the Supreme Court.
He explained that the union’s case for regularization of all these employees – who remain on contractual basis despite decades of service – has been pending before the Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court in New Delhi since 2015.
“While this matter is pending, without informing the court, the management has dismissed workers, which is a violation of Section 33 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947,” Saxena told Peoples Dispatch. The law states while an industrial dispute is underway, the employer shall not change the conditions of service or dismiss, “any workmen concerned in such dispute, save with the express permission in writing of the authority before which the proceeding is pending.”
“But the bench hearing this case is now empty because the judge retired. So we approached the High Court, complaining that the management has violated the law,” he added.
Approached for a comment, Bhuvaneshwar Dwivedi, the Operations Manager of the Patparganj plant, told Peoples Dispatch, “The matter is sub-judice. The matter is being heard by the Honorable High Court of Delhi… Let the court decide, and we will follow the order.”
“We will fight this battle to the end, through labor agitations and in legal forums all the way to the Supreme Court,” Saxena maintained.
