Uttarakhand Election: Labour Issues Missing from Key Political Parties’ Agenda

Rudrapur: The hustle, bustle and din of elections are reverberating across Uttarakhand, which goes to polls on February 14 to elect a new state government. Each political party is making claims of contributing to development. But in the midst of all this, the working class seems to be lost somewhere in the background. No political party is speaking openly on the problems of workers or their demands at a time when major problems like retrenchment, salary cut, non-implementation of wage agreement and lockout sweep the entire state.
 
Employees of many companies in Pant Nagar and Rudrapur, the major industrial areas of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, have been fighting for their rights for many years but their demands are not being considered at all. In many cases, even when a decision has come in favour of workers from the High Court, the company managements have not been implementing them.
 
In all this, the government administration is also seen as going against the interests of workers.
 
NewsClick spoke to many workers who said under this (Bharatiya Janata Party) government, the oppression and exploitation of workers had increased rapidly. They said although it is not true that the era of earlier governments was like “heaven” for workers, but at least they were living. “This government has killed workers. It is attacking every right of ours,” they said.
 
What the workers in Uttarakhand are saying is evident from their struggles in industrial areas, such as Sidkul, Pantnagar and Sitarganj. Workers in these belts have been struggling for their rights for long, including the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown. Workers in these areas have formed a united front to fight against the exploitation of companies.
 
A string of protests have been going on in this hill state. While the workers of Bhagwati Products (Micromax) have been fighting since December 2018 against illegal gate clousres, as are those in Voltas, Gujarat Ambuja, and Amul Motors. The workers of several companies are fighting against illegal retrenchment and wage settlements.
 
In Interarch company located in Rudrapur, 32 workers have been retrenched in the last 171 days. These workers are sitting on dharna outside the company gate in protests against their “illegal retrenchment.”
 
Interarch has two plants in Udham Singh Nagar district at Pantnagar and Kichha. These 32 workers say they are victims of the illegal gate closure by the company since 2018. The wages of the workers have not increased since then. As a result, an indefinite dharna is on at both the gates of the company.
 
Diljit, the leader of Interarch Mazdoor Union, while talking to NewsClick said they had put forth the matter of wage settlement in front of the management which was not fulfilled. “Instead, many of our people have been fired” he said, adding that there has been no wage settlement since four years.
“Instead, there has been termination, suspension and harassment of employees who raised their voices,” he alleged.
 
The agitating employees said the Nainital court had asked the management to work out a bipartite wage settlement, but on the pretext of corona, the management unilaterally announced an interim relief of Rs 1,000-1,200 in the salary of workers. The  union refused to take this interim relief and began a protest at the company gate.
 
Sanjay Singh, a labourer who is among those who have been fired, said the management is taking arbitrary decisions, “but we are also ready to fight the battle till the end. We will not leave without getting our demands fulfilled,” he added.
 
Then there’s the case of Bhagwati Products Limited, which makes Micromax products. On December 27, 2018, the company illegally retrenched 303 workers. While 47 other employees were laid off. After a long struggle, the workers won the case at the level of Industrial Tribunal to the High Court, where the retrenchment was declared illegal. Yet, the issue stays unresolved, as the management has completely stopped production at the Rudrapur plant, while its Bhiwani and Hyderabad plants are producing in huge numbers.
 
Ganesh Singh, one of the retrenched employees, said  in December 2018, they were given leave for two-three days on the occasion of Christmas, after which when workers came back to work, they saw a notice at the gate, listing the names of more than 300 employees whose services had been terminated.
 
Singh, who worked in the company for almost five years, says he was shocked and pained when he was fired. “How can such a decision be taken suddenly, without any notice. All the employees were shocked and also very angry with the management,” he added.
 
When the workers questioned the management on this illegal retrenchment, they were told that there is no work for so many people in the factory. While those who were retrenched say that when they were working there, they were asked to work beyond capacity. “Suddenly saying that there is no work is completely incomprehensible,” Singh said,
 
The workers of Bhagwati Products (Micromax) have also been fighting against retrenchment. A day-night dharna is going on at the company gate. During the dharna, the management created all kinds of problems and also filed cases against workers. The employees had started a relay fast, however due to the corona pandemic, they have postponed their protest for now.
 
Since the past three years, the employees of this company are worried about their livelihood and the future of their families. One, this company has unfairly fired them and two, no one is hiring them. Most of the workers in this company are B.Sc and ITI diploma holders.
 
Another such worker is Dheeraj Singh Khati, who is currently selling tea in Rudrapur’s Deputy Commissioner of Labour comple. Talking to NewsClick, he said: “Earlier I used to assemble Micromax mobile phones, now I am trying to make a living for my family by selling tea and pakodas.”
 
Khatri was a trained employee, and was working in the mobile phone company for about four and a half years. Suddenly, the company removed him from there without notice.
 
There are many like Khatri who are wandering around for work. One such labourer is 30-year-old Suraj Singh, who was also fired by the company. These workers, who came down to Rudrapur from the hills with their resumes, are being pushed from one company in search of work. But, no one is giving them work because they are experienced would have to be paid salary, so companies are hiring fresh boys  instead, from who they can extract work for just Rs 7,000-8,000/month.
 
In SIDCUL Pantnagar, multinational company HP India suddenly shut down its plant illegally. The company first made workers sit at home by giving them leave at the time of COVID-19. Simultaenously, it has been offering lollipops to workers in the form of VRS (voluntary retirement), transfers etc.
 
In the meantime, the company has laid off many contract workers, as a result of which the 185 permanent workers are on the streets after the sudden closure. The dharna by workers continues in front of the Haldwani Labour Department.
 
In Voltas Limited, Pantnagar, a struggle is going on for the last two and a half years over the illegal termination of nine workers. Union leaders said they had given a demand letter for a new wage settlement, but the management sacked nine workers, including the union's president and general secretary.
 
Dinesh Tiwari, President of Shramik Samyukta Manch, explained the whole issue to NewsClick in detail, adding that this problem was not only of any one plant or industry, but “this is happening in every other company because all this is being done under a well thought-out strategy.”
 
Tiwari said there are twin problems here. The first problem is that the management is migrating to another state by closing down the company after
taking advantage of subsidies and tax concessions. Second, the management is adopting the Centre’s policy of employing cheap labour by removing regular employees. Hence, regular labourers are being replaced by cheap labourers, who are being engaged on contract under the NEEM (national employability enhancement mission) scheme. When  employees want to organise and form a union to raise their voice against all this, then attacks on them are intensified.
 
It may be noted that in Uttarakhand and many hill states, governments had given tax exemptions and other subsidies to set up new industries, the period of which is now ending. After this, these companies have been migrating to other states. The workers are opposed this ‘wrong’ move by companies.
 
Tiwari said the situation has worsened under the BJP government, especially in the past four years. Under this government, jobs have continuously reduced and  employment opportunities have been decreasing. The government is claiming that it has given employment to lakhs of people, whereas the truth is that a large number of people who were working during the economic slowdown and corona pandemic have also become jobless. Forget any question about new jobs.
 
The union leader said: “We met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami several times regarding the problems of workers but we got only assurances. BJP changed three chief ministers in six months but there has been no change in the condition of workers. Rather, exploitation increased. That's why we have appealed to people to defeat BJP this time. Lakhs of voters belonging to thousands of working families are campaigning against BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections."
 
Although most workers said that “no party fights for us. Congress has also done what BJP is doing today. We have to fight our own battle.”
 
 (Translated from Hindi by Aditi)