Praveen Kumar, a former employee of AT&S India (which produces high end PCB boards for electronic equipment), who joined the company in 2008 as a trainee, says he was told that he would be made permanent in two years. But, even 12 years later, Praveen was not made a permanent employee. “I’m a machine operator, for the past 10 years I’ve been doing the same work that permanent employees do. The only difference between them and me is that they earn around Rs 40,000 and I earn Rs 11,000 per month,” he says. Now, Praveen and 64 other employees like him have been dismissed, and are sitting in protest in front of the office, demanding to be reinstated and be made permanent.
The workers have been on an indefinite strike under the leadership of the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) since Tuesday outside the premises demanding that the company take them back as permanent employees.
The workers allege that they asked the management multiple times about making them permanent employees, but received no response. In 2005, the workers formed a union and filed a case against the company with the same demand — to be made permanent. The company was allegedly not happy about this and according to those protesting, used the lockdown as a reason to dismiss them. The case is still pending.
According to the workers, an HR manager had verbally told one of the workers after lockdown was declared that they need not come to work but would be paid. The worker Mahadevaswamy had conveyed the same to all the others over a voice message in a WhatsApp group of the labor union. The management however denied that they ever communicated this and suspended the worker for spreading misinformation. A few other workers were later dismissed for allegedly not following physical distancing norms. Workers however say that this termination was because they had stood up for their suspended colleague.
Ujwal, another employee who was also dismissed, says that it was next to impossible to leave their village even if they did want to go to work.
“The panchayat had dug up roads so nobody could come in or go out. If we stepped out, they wouldn’t allow us back in. On top of this, we heard that the police would hit us if they saw us outside the village,” he says.
Ujwal adds that after things were okay when they returned to work on May 4, but 20 days later on May 25, the employee who had left the voice message was suspended. When about 30 of them went to question the management, they were suspended for not following COVID protocol. Ujwal however maintains they were all wearing masks, but were still suspended. When 35 other employees gave a letter that they would go on a hunger strike against the suspension, they were suspended as well.
After the workers were suspended, the company set up an enquiry by a lawyer it appointed.
“We’ve been cheated in this process. We asked if our lawyer could be present but the company refused. The company lawyer assured us that the enquiry was just a formality and once we simply sign that we made a mistake, our suspension would be revoked. But after we signed the papers, the management dismissed us,” Ujwal adds.
In a statement to TNM, AT&S said that the group of employees “indulged in serious acts of misconduct, which warranted disciplinary action”.
“Therefore, management initiated disciplinary action through an independent third party from outside the company, who acted as an Enquiry Officer and conducted the Domestic Enquiry in strict adherence to the principles of natural justice. After ensuring that the enquiry was conducted in accordance with the principles of natural justice, management dismissed these trainees from their services following legal procedure protocols laid down under the Industrial Disputes Act,” AT&S said in a statement.
“These dismissed trainees approached the Hon’ble Deputy Labour Commissioner, Region-2 & Conciliation Officer, Bengaluru, through their union, alleging that all 72 trainees were dismissed and while a total of 65 number of Trainees have been dismissed from the traineeship as on this day,” the statement read.
It added that it was “unfortunate” that the workers approached the media while the matter is pending in front of the Industrial Tribunal, Mysuru and the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Region-2 and Conciliation Officer, Bengaluru.
“Given that the matter is currently sub judice, the company would like to let the matter proceed without any further comments,” it said.