Terror reigned at Allied Nippon: Workers

The killing on Saturday of Joginder Chaudhury, the assistant general manager of Allied Nippon, the auto parts maker, allegedly stoned to death by angry workers, was the culmination of a battle of nerves for the past two months in which, the workers say, they could take no more.

According to them, the effort of the company for the past two months has been removal of the 380 regular workers and of those casual workers on the verge of being regularised. This has been accompanied with violence, said the workers to Business Standard.

‘Two months of terror’
Three of the 30 regular workers who have got showcause notices for their alleged role in Saturday’s episode spoke to this newspaper. They charge that what preceded the violence was two months of terror, since the new management took charge under Mahender Singh Chaudhury. The Chaudhuries moved around accompanied by gunmen or had the gunmen stroll around waving their weapons. They had even stopped the food breaks in the night shift, say the workers.

They allege while a regular worker in the bonding department got '12000 pay, a contract worker doing the same job got '3,200. “While regulars worked eight hours, the contract ones worked 12 hours, got no provident fund, gratuity, ESI or leave. The contract workers worked all week. So, who would not want to replace us with them?'' they remark.

“If anyone was found resting during the 30-minute break in the night shift, the late Chaudhury would shout and write their names and threaten them,'' says a worker.

The earlier set of managers was removed after the owner, Ravi Talwar, handed over the company to his son, Rohan Talwar. The earlier management never had any use for gun men and there was never any tension, say the workers. The previous chairman ran the factory for decades without such methods, say the workers.

The production was 60,000 brake shoes daily till two months earlier, when the new team led by Mahendra Singh Chaudhury was hired. The production came down to 40,000 daily, say the workers. They allege work was not assigned, with the idea of keeping people idle with the idea of making them irrelevant.

They also deny the management’s claim that the state labour department had closed the file on the suspension of five contract workers. Instead, they say, the labour department had asked the company to take them back but the latter refused. The labour department then enfoced Rule 4 under the Industrial Disputes Act, under which the workers cannot go on strike and management cannot fire workers till talks are held. Workers say they were waiting for talks but the management wanted to get rid of workers rather than go by the labour laws.

Death version
The workers’ version of the events leading to the death of Joginder Chaudhury. On November 13, two technical supervisors, Rohan Chaudhury and Anurag Sharma, told Netrapal Singh and Chaman Singh Solanki, workers, to move from their regular section to another one which required working on a machine they were not used to. The workers, who had been doing the same job for decades and were given no reason for the change, questioned this.

The supervisors said there was pressure from above to do this. They then called Joginder Chaudhury and R K Singh, who came with revolvers and accompanied with gunmen.

The workers say they demanded obedience or face action, and then fired in the air. The result was panic, says a worker who was present at the time and is now in hiding. While Chaudhury ran towards the adjoining factory of Rama Steel, R K Singh got someone to pick him up in a car. But workers chased him with stones picked from the street and he fell bleeding, before getting away to safety, say the workers.