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CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The looting of an iPhone maker in South India could be the first of many “hot spots” involving local workers in the supply chains of major brands, researchers said. on Tuesday, noting the lack of rights and recourse pursuant to the new labor laws.
Thousands of workers hired at the Indian tech hub of Bengaluru gathered on Saturday outside a factory owned by Taiwanese company Wistron Corp, a supplier to Apple Inc., to demand unpaid wages and better working hours.
When police arrived, the crowd turned violent and video from the scene showed people armed with rods and sticks smashing equipment and smashing cars, causing up to $ 7.1 million in damage according to a company estimate.
The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) said the incident in the southern state of Karnataka was the result of workers being subjected to “extremely exploitative working conditions such as sweatshops in flagrant violation of labor laws. “.
The workers were earning far less than the promised monthly salary of Rs 22,000 ($ 299) and were not paid their November salary, according to the AICCTU, which said government officials and Wistron management had not responded to their complaints.
“These workers come from very poor families and not receiving their salary was pushing them to the brink,” said Clifton D. Rosario, AICCTU national secretary.
Apple said Monday it was sending staff and auditors to the site and was cooperating with police. Wistron said in a regulatory filing in Taiwan that it “always complies with the law and fully supports and is cooperating with the relevant authorities.”
An official from Karnataka’s labor department, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said on Tuesday that the problem was being resolved and that the workers would receive their quotas. The factory would reopen soon, he added.
Labor rights experts warned that worker unrest in India’s manufacturing centers could increase as new laws, which were passed in September, deny workers the right to strike or receive social benefits if they work for smaller companies. [L5N2GK1A6]
“These pockets of tension will continue,” said PK Anand, a visiting researcher at the Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies, who works on labor issues in China and India.
“It is the only way that workers can be heard in the absence of legal guarantees and adequate complaint redress mechanisms,” Anand told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
MORE FEARED VIOLENCE
Wistron has been manufacturing iPhones in India for almost four years and its operation has been seen as a success story for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which seeks to boost manufacturing under its slogan “Make in India.”
Several major tech brands, including South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and China’s Xiaomi Corp, have outsourced production or set up factories in India in recent years.
Wistron’s Narasapura factory in Bengaluru employs some 1,300 permanent workers and at least 8,000 contract workers who were hired through various contractors, the AICCTU said.
Police said Monday they had arrested 149 people for the violence and were looking to find and arrest more perpetrators.
Rosario from the AICCTU said many of the other workers were “petrified” and had turned off their phones to avoid contact.
While the government has said that new labor laws, aimed at simplifying complex regulations, would protect workers, this year six states relaxed or suspended labor laws to help the industry recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The changes mean that workers could face longer hours and lower wages, and risk sparking more protests, according to researchers.
“This (Wistron incident) should be seen simply as a case of wage theft,” said Rajesh Joseph, a professor who teaches labor issues at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.
“There was no union to negotiate on behalf of workers, inspections do not exist and there is no anonymous complaint mechanism. So where should a worker complain? If they have nowhere to go, you will see more violence. “
Reporting by Anuradha Nagaraj @AnuraNagaraj; Edited by Kieran Guilbert. Please give credit to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world struggling to live freely or justly. Visit news.trust.org
