People's Democracy

AILU Team’s Report on Maruti Episode

ON July 28, 2012, a delegation of the All India Lawyers Union (AILU), Haryana state unit, visited Gurgaon and met the Maruti workers and officials as well as police officials. The aim was to grasp the root cause as well as the immediate causes of violence that recently occurred in the Maruti plant at Manesar.

From the queries the AILU raised before all the concerned parties, some important facts did came out. One agreed point concerning the root of the dispute is the heavy employment of contract labourers who do not enjoy any right or protection provided by labour laws to other workers.

No job security, no leave, no increment, non-payment of minimum wages in most cases, no PF, no retrenchment compensation --- these are some of the glaring features of contract labour. In the Maruti company, previously the number of contract workers was negligible but their proportion has been increasing continuously for the last several years. The workers were demanding a reduction in contract labour and conversion of the contract labourers into regular employees of the company.

The second point of dispute was the registration and recognition of workers’ union in the Manesar plant. Then there was also the issue of wage revision. When this issue came to the fore, it soon came out that the management was not serious about resolving it through negotiations. Rather they were trying various ways and means to postpone the issue of wage revision and conversion of contract labour into regular labour. Therefore, discontent among the workers continued to simmer unabated.   

Arrogant and inconsiderate behaviour of the management and a bit of immaturity on part of the union leadership were the main immediate causes.

On the day of the unfortunate occurrence, the irresponsible, arrogant and feudalistic behaviour of a supervisor who called a senior worker of union, Jia Lal as “dedh,” ignited the situation. Jia Lal protested but the supervisor persisted in use of abusive language. Jia Lal then slapped the supervisor and was as a consequence suspended. The union leaders protested against Jia Lal’s suspension and some senior officers of the company did agree to withdraw the suspension and to hold a regular enquiry into the incident, but the middle order management did not agree. When union representatives were negotiating with the management, the toughs employed and nurtured by the company were called in. These goons threw the representatives of the workers out of the negotiation room and badly thrashed them.

At the sight of their maltreated and frustrated leaders who were feeling helpless and desperate, the workers who had assembled in a good number on the ground floor got infuriated and the situation became extremely tense. The workers, who outnumbered the police force, broke the computers and other equipment which came their way.

When the rioting was going on, the building caught fire; as a consequence of it, one officer died of burns and suffocation. The deceased had also suffered fracture in his legs.

From enquiry it came out that the injured had received injuries on their legs and other non-vital parts of the body and that none (including the deceased) received any grievous injury on head. This fact establishes that workers did not aim to murder anybody. Furthermore, nobody except the deceased suffered burn injuries, which shows no intention of vandalism.

The allegation that workers deliberately put the premises on fire is not substantiated by the way the fire started. The possibility of fire by power short circuit cannot be ruled out.

On the whole, the sequence of events does not support the theory of pre-mediated assault or sabotage. However, the immaturity of the leadership has had some ugly and unfortunate fallouts:

1) The issues of wage revision and regularisation of contract labour have got postponed for an indefinite period.

2) The implementation of labour laws in the company will be given a go-bye and the state’s labour department will remain a mute spectator.

3) There is now no representative forum for airing the workers’ grievances.

4) The workers arrested, even if they are innocent, will be prosecuted and punished with a vengeance. The appointment of a senior advocate as special prosecutor shows the intention of the state and the company.

5) The organisations of trade and industry have come out in support of the Maruti management, demanding that workers must be dealt with a heavy hand. They are also trying to derive from the Maruti episode a psychological advantage by mischievously propagating that the incident would adversely affect FDI flows. It is as if FDI is not going to Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Nigeria, Angola and to other disturbed places that are rich in resources! Can we forget that India is the biggest market of small cars and that companies are not coming here out of any benevolence?

6) Unfortunately, local leaders of the Congress party are, instead of abiding by and defending the Indian constitution, fomenting casteist and regional feelings in connection with this occurrence. Panchayats too are being organised for spreading hatred against the workers.

As for prosecution of the real miscreants, nobody can have any objection, but so far it appears that moves are afoot to persecute the workers in general.

Of the 55 workers named in the FIR, a good number is of the apprentices who are employed by the company on a fixed wage for a fixed period to gain experience. They had to do nothing with the union. Some of those arrested came to know about the occurrence from the police.

In view of the above mentioned facts and observations the AILU, Haryana unit, has urged that the present stalemate is not in the interest of either party and that immediate steps must be taken to hold a tripartite meeting to create conditions for the start of production in the company. That one act will diffuse the tension to a great extent.

The special investigation team would do well to remember the central point of Indian criminal jurisprudence --- that the purpose of an investigation is to find out the truth of an occurrence in its all dimensions.

The local Congress leaders must desist from using this unfortunate incident to settle their scores with their opponents in the party or government. They must desist from fomenting casteism or caste hatred which work both ways and may harm them as well.