CHENNAI: A section of Samsung workers at the company’s manufacturing unit in Sriperumbudur staged a sit-in strike on Wednesday against the suspension of three staff allegedly without any basis. All three were office-bearers of the CITU-backed Samsung India Workers’ Union (SIWU), which was recently registered by Tamil Nadu’s Labour department under the Trade Unions Act.
E Muthukumar, Kancheepuram CITU secretary and president of SIWU, said that the workers were suspended without valid reasons and that the move is part of the management’s efforts to dismantle the SIWU. However, Samsung said that the workers have been suspended on charges of disrupting operations at the plant.
“When we called off the protest (in October last year), it was based on the assurance that no retaliatory action would be taken against the workers. If they had grievances, they could have brought it to us during the ongoing conciliatory discussions,” Muthukumar said. Workers TNIE spoke to said that while the suspension notices have officially been issued only to three workers so far, they fear more such action.
Sources in Samsung said that a disciplinary committee would investigate the matter before further decisions.
“Our global code of conduct stipulates that the company has a zero tolerance policy for any type of behaviour that goes against maintaining a professional and respectful workplace environment. The employees in question violated the company policy and have been suspended temporarily and will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action following a formal enquiry.
The company is continuing to make efforts towards a collective agreement with our workers and has not forced any employee to join the worker committee or leave the union,” a Samsung India spokesperson said. On January 27, the TN labour department registered the SIWU under the Trade Unions Act, 1926, making it the country’s first Samsung workers’ union.
Since then, another round of conciliatory talks was conducted with members of the SIWU and Labour department officials. CITU members said that they had raised the issue of alleged retaliation against the workers for carrying out a month-long protest last year and failing to endorse the internal workers’ committee set up by Samsung. However, they are yet to receive a written response, they said.
“The workers plan to continue the protest until the disciplinary action against them is dropped. Now that we are a registered union, we are confident that the workers will not give in to Samsung’s demand,” said a CITU member.