It has been 100 days since workers of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Limited, one of the country’s largest public sector undertakings (PSUs), were sacked without notice allegedly for attempting to unionise and demand pay due to them in the lockdown period. A fact-finding report released this week highlighted the plight of the workers, numbering 80, who were axed in December, 2021.
Hemanth Kumar, one of the workers, told TNM that they were punished for speaking out and raising the issue of payments due to them. "We asked the company to pay us our due wages but without any intimation, barricades were put up in front of the gate and we were told by the security staff that we no longer have our jobs," recalled Hemanth.
He said that the decision to sack them was because of their attempts to unionise. "These 80 workers had joined the Karnataka General Labour Union (KGLU) to ask for their due wages before they were sacked," Hemanth said.
According to the fact-finding report, 28 workers from ITI had earlier moved the labour court in August 2020 asking to be compensated by the management for the period of the first lockdown. They eventually received compensation. But when 80 more workers joined the union, the management allegedly terminated their contracts without warning. "The management considered this as an affront and terminated them without any explanation. At present, 80 contract workers have been refused employment; many of them have been harassed and intimidated for unionising and trying to demand their rights," the report said.
The report, which carries the testimonies of many workers, found that the company was paying workers based on their educational qualifications rather than their work experience or skill level since the first lockdown. "This is a form of coded discrimination since it is well known that many workers from lower class and caste backgrounds may not have had the same educational opportunities as elite classes and castes.As a result, several workers who were doing “highly skilled” jobs saw their wages fall significantly because they did not have the required educational qualification. And yet, the nature of their jobs remained the same," the report said.
The fact-finding report was compiled by Akash Bhattacharya, Malini Ranganathan, Rajendran Narayanan, Sushmita Pati and Juhi Tyagi, who identified themselves as members of the civil society. The workers were involved in making telecommunication equipment, particularly for India's defence forces, and some of them have been working with ITI for over two decades, Hemanth said. Until 2020, workers like Hemanth were employed on a contract basis under two cooperative societies run by former ITI employees. In June 2020, Pujaya Ltd, a new contractor, replaced the cooperative society. Now, the workers have been told that they can appear for interviews with another new contractor Sai Communications, if they want to get their jobs back. "We will continue our protest till we are given our jobs back," Hemanth said.