Contract staff protest against firm, allege injustice

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, September 13

About 200 contractual workers at Micron Instruments Private Limited, a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of mechanical machine parts, have been protesting against the firm since Friday for being evicted without notice or transferred.

Workers, currently employed at the Industrial Area Phase 1 unit, near Elante mall, claimed that some of them had been evicted without notice while the rest were told to shift to the Barwala unit. There were not being provided with any transport.

These workers did not go to Barwala but started protesting outside the factory here. They also claimed that they were being offered monthly emoluments of Rs 7,900 at Barwala instead of Rs 8,450 they were paid here.

The claim, however, has been refuted by their contractor, Amit Setia. “They will be given the same pay there. The company is undecided as to whether to provide them transportation or not,” he added.

Some of the workers had been working here for over 12 years and feel cheated by the company.

Vipin Tiwari, one of the workers, said, “Some workers have been shown the door while some have been forced to resign. Now all of a sudden, they want the rest of us to go and work 30 km away. But neither are we provided any transportation nor the same salary. How is that justified?”

Rajat Kapoor, senior commercial manager of the unit, said, “Our managing director is out of the country at present. The decision about these workers will be taken once he returns. We have conveyed this to the workers through the contractor but they are not ready to listen. We had asked only about 10-15 workers to go to Barwala and they have involved all the others too.”

The workers have written a letter to Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi and have sent its copy to MP Kirron Kher. They have approached the labour court as well and said they had been called for hearing tomorrow at 11 am.