CHENNAI: Hundreds of Samsung workers and CITU members, led by Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU) president E Muthukumar, agitated before the office of the Inspector of Factories at Sriperumbudur, calling for the immediate removal of contract workers allegedly used in the production lines by Samsung India.
As its next step, CITU plans on asking union members in 61 factories and manufacturing units in the Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu region to issue strike notices to their respective employers in order to protest in solidarity.
This comes after the most recent round of talks between the two parties, held on Monday, failed. The next round of talks have been scheduled for Thursday.
As per the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, contract staff can only assist the manufacturing process by being engaged in tasks such as loading, unloading and packaging and cannot be directly involved in the central manufacturing process which is reserved for permanent staff, Muthukumar told TNIE.
“At present, around 1,600 contract staff are being engaged,” Muthukumar claimed. Samsung sources had said that while outside help was being used, the number of such contract staff engaged were few.