A software bug may have set off violence at Wistron factory

Investigators believe the discontent was triggered by a flaw in how Wistron logged the workers’ attendance

Police lathicharged the protesting employees. DH FILE PHOTO 

A software bug could have been behind the eruption of violence at the Wistron Infocomm factory in Kolar.

Saturday’s outbreak of violence saw large parts of the factory damaged and ransacked after thousands of disgruntled contract workers became angered over continued delayed or reduced salaries.

Now, investigators believe this discontent was triggered by a flaw in how Wistron logged the workers’ attendance.

“Initially, the company was using a biometric system to chart the attendance of contract workers who are paid on the number of days they work. But from October 2020, they introduced a new access card attendance system, which had software bugs,” said K Srinivas, Director, Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety and Health, which has investigated the violence.

Problem continued for two months

A report released by the department on Monday suggested that the bugs were not ironed out of the system even though the problem continued for two months.

An official who did not want to be named said hundreds of workers were consequently subjected to lower payments because the system showed them absent on working days.

The disclosure comes even as the Inspector General of Police (Central) Seemant Kumar Singh said phase 2 of the investigation has been launched to uncover more details.

Wistron surprised

On Monday, Akram Pasha, Commissioner, Labour Department, quizzed Wistron and the outsourcing firms about investigative findings of non-payment of salaries and overtime violations.

Pasha said that outsourcing companies had rejected some of the findings made by investigators.

“They claim all payments had been made but that there had been a delay of four days. We have requested documents and other evidence. Wistron, for one, has asked for a week’s time,” Pasha said. He added that Wistron’s management had also expressed surprise about the scale of their workforce discontent.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said action will be taken against firms that violate regulations. “The law is the same for everybody,” he told DH.

He added that the violence had also happened possibly “as the factory is still new, employees have no union and because the workers are primarily young boys”.

Rebuilding in progress

An authoritative source said that Wistron has already started rebuilding and will resume production once the insurance assessors have completed their examination. The source also rejected claims that the company had placed the factory on lockout mode.

IGP Singh told DH that the police had no inkling of the labour difficulties occurring at the factory.

“No grievance was lodged with the Labour Department. We are still investigating the cause of the violence. So far, we have arrested 149 individuals,” he said.