Death of a manager could prove a serious setback to industrial towns

Twenty-six months ago, the workers of Graziano Transmissioni in Greater Noida, iron rods in hand, went looking for L K Gupta. The general manager-human resources of the company hid under the table, leaving the venetian blinds and windows to bear the brunt of the workers’ wrath.

Not satiated, the mob barged into the first-floor guest house, where Chief Executive Officer Lalit Kishore Chaudhary was talking to some executives from the company’s Italian parent. The Italians scattered and hid in different rooms. Chaudhary jumped out of the balcony onto the porch, but could not get far enough. He was lynched.

On Saturday, seven executives of Allied Nippon in Ghaziabad were attacked by angry workers. Joginder Chaudhary, 45, who was assistant general manager-human resources, died in hospital the next day. Company security supervisor Narendra Dabas and senior security official Ombir Singh remain in intensive care.

Both Graziano and Allied Nippon are makers of automotive components. Graziano is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oerlikon Drive System. Allied Nippon is a joint venture between the Talwar Group and Japan Brake Industrial.

As could be expected, there are sharply different versions of the latest incident. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) – the Allied Nippon workers’ union is affiliated to it – says Chaudhary’s death was a result of provocation from management and gunfire by guards. The management says it was a planned attack in which workers chased their targets.

Citu National Secretary Dipankar Mukherji says the workers’ union gave notice on Saturday that it would strike work from Tuesday over the sacking of some workers, but agreed to attend conciliation talks with the deputy labour commissioner on Monday. But members of the management entered the factory on Saturday afternoon and hurled abuses and threats at the workers. Armed guards opened fire, Mukherji alleges.

The management says nothing of the sort took place. “This is a lie. Can’t a manager ask workers to go and do a particular piece of work or use one particular machine rather than the other? Is that provocation to kill?” asks a senior executive of the company.

According to him, the attack started when the first shift was still leaving and the second shift arriving. The number of workers on the premises was therefore at its peak of 700. According to this executive, for an hour-and-a-half executives were fished out of their offices and attacked. When a police vehicle arrived on the scene, with five or six men in it, they were driven away by the agitating workers.

Chaudhary and others were beaten with iron rods as they tried to run out of the factory. One of them had a licensed revolver and fired into the air. Other than that, there was no use of a weapon. According to the management, the company had sacked only contract workers; no employee had lost his job.

A first-information report has been lodged, which names 27 people who were allegedly part of the brawl, along with 300 unidentified people. A search operation has been launched by the police to trace those who are absconding.

As the law takes its course, questions are being raised about how such incidents would influence the approach of companies looking to set up units in Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, which are close by and similar on many parameters. Those already operating in the area fear that multinationals, especially, may view this belt with growing scepticism.

Graziano’s plant had run smoothly for years before labour trouble erupted. Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, an IIT-Kanpur graduate, had built the factory from scratch as plant manager and was appointed CEO in 2005.

After his death, M K Pandhe of Citu had told Business Standard that the incident could happen all over again. It’s a thought that would have come back to keep him awake on Sunday night.