Contract workers stage dharna outside GM's Halol plant

Union claims firm appointed 150 workers but left out 90 who worked with GM for 10 years

General Motors India (GM) plant at Halol near Vadodara in Gujarat seems to have once again faced with labour related problems. Around 400 to 450 contractual workers today staged a dharna  outside the factory gates at Halol after many of them were not allowed to enter the premises.

Nihil Mehta, president, Gujarat wing of Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) claimed that the company had given fresh letters of appointment to around 100-150 contractual workers. However, as many as 90 veteran workers, who have been working in General Motors for the last ten years, were excluded. "The company had issued a notice earlier this week to collect the fresh letters of appointment. Due to holiday on account of Uttarayan, all workers could not collect the letters. Today, when they reported to work they were stopped from entering the premises."

The company, however, could not be reached for a comment.

A senior police official confirmed the development and said that workers had staged a protest outside the factory. "These are not permanent workers of GM. They are from Mahindra Logistics, a company that supplies workers to the plant on contract. They have some issues pertaining to their fresh contracts, and hence, they staged a protest outside the factory today. No incidence of violence was, however, reported," he explained.

A worker at the plant too said that the workers from Mahindra Logistics had staged a protest, and that the plant was functioning as per schedule. "The plant is producing around 120-130 cars per day now, of which around 70-80 units are that of the Tavera. The workers sitting outside the plant did not cause any disturbance in production as of now," he added on grounds of anonymity.

Mehta, however, alleged that despite the workers indicating in writing that they were willing to collect the new contracts (letters), they were not allowed to enter.

The Halol plant has seen labour trouble earlier as well. In October 2010, workers at Halol had gone on strike demanding higher wages. The issue was resolved in flat three days. However, later in March 2011, GM's Halol plant saw the rise of another labour union, the Gujarat Kamdar Mandal under the aegis of the Intuc, and nearly 900 workers went on an indefinite strike from March 16 complaining about health hazards. Six weeks and many twists and turns later, work finally resumed at the GM plant in May 2011 and a committee was mooted that would have representation from the workers, the management and the state labour department.