Protesting workers of Asian Paints detained by police in Chennai

The workers have been protesting since April 28 over a host of issues

About 50 workers of Asian Paints Ltd were detained by the police here on Thursday, when they were trying to protest in front of the chief labour commissioner’s office.

V Rajesh, president, Asian Paints Employees Union, said the workers were on strike since April 28 and demanding reinstatement of dismissed workers, payment of bonus/ex gratia which he claimed had been pending for nearly two years.

The union also demanded a dialogue immediately on wage revision and action against a company official who allegedly assaulted an employee.

“Since there was no progress in the talks held at the labour commissioner’s office in Sriperumpudur, where the plant is located, we decided we will take up the matter with the chief labour commissioner,” said Rajesh.

A company spokesperson didn’t respond to phone calls and text messages by Business Standard.

The workers have been protesting after the management had dismissed two permanent workers, suspended two and dismissed around 60 contract workers.

Rajesh claims officials here did not give any positive response or solutions for the ongoing issue. Hence, the workers decided to hold the protest, following which they were detained by the police.

He said Asian Paints’ Sriperumpudur factory had around 450 workers, 250 on contract workers. While the permanent workers were on strike, he said the place was manned with contract workers.

The capacity of the plant is 450,000 litres per day. Rajesh claims the production would have come down by more than half due to the strike.