Allied Nippon was an accident, says Gzb labour dept

The Ghaziabad district labour department said the death of a senior executive of the Allied Nippon plant during a clash with workers last week was an accident.

“The whole thing was an accident. It was a case of management failure,” said Assistant Labour Commissioner of Ghaziabad M K Joshi.

“We had called a meeting on the day before the incident took place and had decided to hold another on November 15 to help the management and the workers come to a settlement. In fact, when the labour department was handling the case there was no violence. Why did it happen all of a sudden?” he said.

The labour department, the district magistrate and the superintendent of police had received a prior warning from workers in August that the situation in the company could get out of hand.

In a letter dated August 21, the workers had alleged that the owners were conspiring to close the company and Joginder Chaudhury – the senior human resources official who was killed in the incident last week – had hired security personnel who had been threatening them that they would not hesitate to shoot them down if there was trouble.

The letter said that on August 18, the workers committee was summoned by the newly appointed security chief who told them that he knew senior police officials and threatened the workers of dire consequences.

“He told us that he was hired by owner Ravi Talwar for a special assignment and has to work for two hours in the morning and evening in the factory. The rest of the time he would be working at Rama Steel (an adjoining company where Joginder Chaudhury used to work). He went on to tell the workers committee that he would remove contract workers even if they had worked for 10 years. The union should not interfere,” the letter said.

The letter appealed to the administration to intervene and prevent possible attacks and attempts to close the company. District officials of the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU) said the administration had been warned about the situation in the factory and the workers had even sought protection.

The trade unions in the district have decided to back CITU that runs the Allied Nippon workers’ union in their fight for justice. They will meet the district magistrate on Saturday.

The management has named 23 workers in the FIR and have mentioned the remaining 350 permanent workers as “others”.

Unions, including BMS, CITU, AITUC, INTUC and HMS, have alleged that the police did not allow the workers to register an FIR but eight police teams have launched a witch hunt to nab the workers who were named in the FIR.

The trade unions have demanded that the police should allow workers to file an FIR and hear both sides out before taking any action. Representatives from all the unions will demonstrate on November 25 in Ghaziabad to protest the police high handedness.

Dinesh Sharma treasurer of CITU said: “The administration will have to explain why no action was taken against these officials who were threatening workers when the union had alerted everyone at least three months back.”

Sharma said Chaudhury incited the workers by taunting them that it was he who had foiled their attempts to call a strike. When the workers said that they were going by a labour court order asking them not to call a strike, Chaudhury instigated them further. “Subsequently an argument followed and someone fired in the air,” said Sharma.