Hardly within a year since its inception, engineer and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T)'s manufacturing facility for switchgear products in Vadodara finds itself amidst a brewing labour trouble within the premises.
According to workers within the plant, almost all of which are on contract, the company has not been inducting them on payroll as permanent employees, apart from failing to provide basic health and safety issues.
While the contractual workers are seeking help from its representative association as well as the labour department of the state government, they are also mulling a lock out to force the company to change its stance.
"The plant was commissioned last year when majority of us were hired on contract. The company had then promised that we would be inducted as permanent employees since almost all of us are skilled workers from nearby ITIs. However, till today L&T has not kept its word. Hence, we are planning for a lock out to protest against the company's indifference," said a worker on condition of anonymity.
Workers also allege high-handedness by the company.
"During Diwali last year majority of the 400 contract workers had decided to leave our jobs at the plant. However, L&T had assured that from January onwards it would enrol us for an in-house training whereby we would be inducted as permanent workers. But it did not fulfill its promise. Also, when all the 400 workers went on strike as part of the two-day nationwide bandh in February 2013, the company refused to take around 50-odd workers back on job," said another worker who was fired from work in February.
Workers have also been demanding a wage hike citing that their wages are paltry and do not justify the kind of permanent nature of work that they do at the plant. "We get a paltry sum of just over Rs 200 per day whereas the kind of permanent nature of work that we do at the plant entitles us for higher wages," the worker said. L&T had invested Rs 130 crore for setting up the switchgear plant behind the company's Knowledge City in Vadodara as part of a capacity expansion initiative for L&T's Electrical and Automation (E&A) business.
Having employed over 400 workers, the company manufacture air circuit breakers (ACBs) and Moulded Case Circuit Breakers (MCCBs) at the Vadodara facility. "As per the Contract Labour Act 1970, an establishment cannot make contractual workers work on the shop floor. However, L&T has been flouting the norms. We have taken up the matter with the state government and will be taking it up with the management as well," said Ashim Roy, president of Contract Labourers' Association.
An emailed query to L&T did not solicit any response from the company.
When contacted, VV Pandya, assistant labour commissioner at the local labour department in Vadodara agreed to have heard of such labour issues at L&T switchgear plant. "However, we have not been approached by either of the parties and hence we cannot do anything about it as of now," said Pandya. The Vadodara switchgear plant is part of L&T's E&A business which has five other manufacturing facilities in places like Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Ahmednagar, Coimbatore and Mysore.
