Exploitative practices led to violence at Wistron factory, says union

Urges govt to include central trade unions in probe committee

The All-India Trade Union Congress pointed to “sweatshop-like conditions” and failure to grant basic rights to workers as reasons for last week’s violence at Wistron’s manufacturing plant.

In a statement on Wednesday, AITUC general secretary M D Harigovind said Wistron Infocomm’s personnel and human resources policies were flawed from the outset, creating an “exploitative” environment at the Kolar factory.

“Qualified workers with Engineering, MBA and Commerce degrees were promised higher wages before recruitment and finally were pushed into low-skilled operator jobs for minimum wages. We believe that these exploitative practices of the company combined with a failure of the state government to regulate the conditions and the lack of a strong trade union led to a spontaneous and uncontrolled burst of industrial violence,” Harigovind said.

AITUC also pointed out that more than 85% of the workforce was on contract. “It is a common principle to employ permanent workers for work of a perennial nature, and this principle has been flouted with impunity,” the union said.

Harigovind urged the labour minister to include representatives of central trade unions with industrial relations in the investigation committee.