A Glance Into The Lives Of Workers With Bite-Sized Stories From Factories, Homes & Communities
Running From Regulations: On a recent visit to the Chromepet leather hub near Chennai, Cividep Coordinators Kohila Senbagam (seen with a leather worker), and Gokhularaj learned how tanneries are shifting base to neighbouring Vellore, to escape the increased implementation of pollution and environmental regulations. A subsidiary industry of collecting leather waste to make cotton mill ‘washer’, an industrial product, has also come up in Chromepet.
An Unpleasant Navratri Surprise: Several electronics factories in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu found a new way to avoid paying the customary annual festive cash bonus to workers for Ayudha Puja. Instead, workers got common household appliances such as wet grinders and dinner sets and not the much-needed cash benefit. Needless to say, they were shocked and disappointed to be at the receiving end of yet another cash-saving measure by the companies.
Left In the Lurch: Garment workers in Bengaluru are increasingly feeling disenchanted with the ESI (Employee State Insurance)* system. Main reason? Difficulty in claiming leave or compensation. This was discovered by the health research team in the course of focus group discussions (in pic). The team estimates that several workers spend around 30-40% of their monthly income on private healthcare.
Surprise Package: When workers of electronics factories in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu received a small hike earlier this year, they were happy. Many thought that their respective managements had finally mended their ways to give a benevolent increment. However, the workers were disabused of this notion at a discussion on minimum wages at the Cividep Worker Resource Centre (WRC) in Sunguvarchattram. Many were surprised to realise that what they got was not an increment but a statutory wage revision.
Diwali Gloom: The post-Diwali season woes continue for many workers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Recently, an electronics factory in Sriperumbudur terminated a few contract workers who had taken more than three days of leave for Diwali. A garments export factory in Bengaluru laid off workers citing lack of orders in what was a ploy to evade paying annual bonus.
Building Healthy Systems: Dr. Sunitha, a gynecologist from a Bengaluru ESI hospital, spoke to Cividep’s health research team about improving workers’ awareness of the state’s health systems. She said that ESI and other public health systems should build trust among workers so they feel encouraged to access public health care. Priority should be given to building awareness about sexual and reproductive health, and cancer prevention among garment workers, she said. (In pic: A health camp organised by Cividep for more than 200 garment workers in Bengaluru)
Passing The Buck: Many post-pandemic cost-cutting measures continue unabated in garment factories of Bengaluru. One example is saving on worker transportation costs – either by discontinuing the factory bus service or cutting a fee for the same from workers’ salaries. As a result, workers at a local export factory staged a protest against the transport fee deduction from their salaries recently. The protest was withdrawn after the management assured the workers of revoking the deduction.
(*An integrated social insurance scheme that provides protection & medical care to employees with a monthly salary less than INR 21,000; against sickness, maternity, disablement, and death due to work-related injury)
Images: Gokhularaj, Kaveri M.T & Deepak Nikarthil
Text: Kohila Senbagam, Gokhularaj, Kaveri M.T, Deepak Nikarthil, Pramod Kumar
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