Sona Koyo shows staff rolls to buy French stake

After carpets and textiles, for a moment it seemed the ghost of child labour had come to haunt the Indian automobile components industry.

Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd's acquisition of a 21 per cent stake in French auto component firm Fuji Autotech France SAS got cleared only after the Indian company had to give a detailed list of its employees to prove that it did not use child labour.

Workers in the French company had expressed fears that after the acquisition of the stake, Sona Koyo would transfer manufacturing to its low-cost base in India, rendering them jobless. And India, the leaders of the workers union argued, was able to produce at low costs only because it engaged child labour.

The allegation was serious. More so because a unique law in France does not allow transfer of stake in any company without the full co-operation of the union.

Before it could snowball into a controversy, records of age of Sona Koyo employees in India were produced before the union, which then gave its nod for the deal.

This is the first time the automobile components industry has been charged with employing child labour. So far, the charge was restricted to some carpet makers and handloom operators. 
 

Clarification

Sona Koyo has clarified that the company did not face any scrutiny for child labour laws, as the headline of the report published on Tuesday (December 7) suggested.

The company says while completing the formalities in the purchase of stake in a European company, Sona Koyo correctly complied with all norms including that of detailing the age of its employees. This is a normal practice by law.