Workers continue stir despite Arvind's legal action warning

Despite a strict legal threat from Arvind Ltd., several workers at its Naroda plant continued to abstain from work on Monday. Terming the week-long strike by workers for wage hike as 'illegal', the Arvind Ltd's management on Sunday had threatened strict legal action if the workers fail to turn up for work on Monday.

According to Amar Barot of Textile Labour Association (TLA), "Only a few number of workers are believed to have resumed work on Monday despite Arvind Ltd.'s management threatening a legal action. It is yet to be seen what further steps will the management take." Arvind management declined to comment.

 

Barot added that the first and second shifts on Monday didn't see much attendance from among the striking workers. In a public appeal published in local newspapers on Sunday, the company management had alleged that the despite the assurance to implement wage hike within six months the workers of the Naroda unit of the company were adamant with their demand and would not come to work unless their demand for 40 per cent hike is accepted. "The Ahmedabad Textile Mills Owners' Association (ATMOA) and the Majoor Mahajan Sangh are working towards resolving the wage hike issue of all the textile mill workers of the city. Also the labour commissioner has been working towards a positive outcome of the negotiations between the company management and the union," the published appeal said.

It further said that despite written assurance from the company management for wage hike the workers were not willing to come to work. "Under such circumstances it is an appeal to all the striking workers of Arvind Ltd's Naroda unit, to end the illegal strike and resume duty. Otherwise, left with no option, the Company will be forced to take strict actions as per legal provision in law against them," the appeal stated.

A total of workers abstaining from work is grew to roughly 2,500 on Friday thereby impacting Arvind's denim manufacturing operations which was down by 60 per cent.

Demanding a 40 per cent wage hike, workers from several departments including rope dyeing and spinning have abstained from work since last one week. It needs to be mentioned here that Textile Labour Association (TLA) , which represents the textile mill workers, had earlier filed a petition in an industrial court seeking higher wages. Negotiations between the company management and the striking workers mediated by the Labour commissioner remained inconclusive last week.

Employing about 3,500 workers, the Naroda plant primarily makes denim fabrics and has annual capacity of 84 million metres out of 108 million metres of total denim capacity of Arvind.