CHENNAI: Thousands of women working at a Foxconn factory near Chennai occupied a stretch of the busy Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway from 10pm on Friday, disrupting traffic on Saturday, demanding information on eight of their colleagues hospitalised after an Acute Diarrhoeal Disease outbreak at a company dormitory in Poonamallee earlier this week.
Vehicles had to be diverted along interior roads even as a related stir disrupted traffic on the Chennai-Tirupati route for some time. By evening, Kancheepuram police arrested 80 people, including 63 workers. They were booked for unlawful gathering, preventing uniformed personnel from discharging duty, public nuisance. Police also filed an FIR on the outbreak and are investigating it.
Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police Dr M Sudhakar, who reached the protest site at Sunguvachathiram on Saturday morning and tried to convince the women to disperse, told TNIE that police managed to clear one side of the GST road by mid-morning and by noon, protesters were pushed to the empty land along the road.
Protesters sought info about hospitalised workers
Police also attempted to charge and forcefully remove the women, but failed. T he issue began on Wednesday when 256 Foxconn employees residing at the International Maritime Academy in Puduchathiram village took ill after having dinner at the dormitory, a Saturday evening press note from the Tiruvallur collectorate said.
Of this 159 workers were hospitalised at nine different hospitals. With workers receiving no information about the condition of the hospitalised women, rumours spread that some may have died. On Friday morning, the residents of the Poonamallee dorm staged a sit-in, demanding information. Their women colleagues at a dormitory at Sriperumbudur too started a protest.
“Things escalated as the person in charge of accommodation threatened us. That is when we left the facility and marched to the national highway demanding information,” said G Kumari (name changed), a Foxconn employee of over six years, who resides at the Sriperumbudur facility. Meanwhile, male Foxconn workers residing at a facility at Walajabad staged a road roko along the Oragadam — Walajabad Road. The police detained over 100 men, mostly migrant labourers, as the women alleged that despite 12 hours of protest, company officials had not met them.
While Labour minister CV Ganesan and other officials met the protesters at Sriperumbudur, tension dissipated only after Kancheepuram Collector M Aarthi made a video call to two of the women thought to be missing and had them address the workers. Aarathi later told TNIE six women who had been hospitalised had gone home. The expenses for their treatment were covered by the company.
While the Sriperumbudur protesters dispersed by afternoon, protesters at Poonamallee and Oragadam dispersed only after 5pm. T he Tiruvallur collectorate release said that of the 159 women hospitalised nearly all of them were discharged by Saturday. However at least two women are still being treated, Collector Alby John Verghese told TNIE. F ood and water samples had been taken from the dorm for analysis and stool samples were also being tested.
The dorm kitchen was sealed and food and water is being provided from outside. “We will take stringent action once the results are out,” he said. According to Kumari, the management prepares food for the dorm residents. “Though quality is poor, we have to eat it as we are not allowed to cook for ourselves. Yet a hefty portion of our salary is taken by them to provide this food,” she said.
Have issued notice to the firm: Labour Minister
After talks with the workers, Labour Minister Ganesan said notice was issued to the company, which had been told to pay the employees for the past few days when they had missed workGOVERNMENT