Contractual employees of auto units in Ggm stage protest for held-up pay

gurugram: A large number of contractual employees who are working in the major automobile manufacturing firms operating out of Gurugram such as Maruti, Honda and Hero on Thursday staged a protest outside the District Magistrate's office. The protest was organised by the workers' unions of these manufacturing giants.

The employees demanded that their salaries that had been held back should now be paid as most of the major automobile firms had now begun to register healthy sales of their automobile units in the month of August. There were also a large number of employees who had been sacked by various automobiles not only during the period of lockdown but even prior to March 22 when the lockdown had not been implemented.

The sacked employees demanded that either they should be reinstated or should be given adequate compensation by the firms so that they can sustain their livelihood. It is estimated that more than 1,300 contractual employees in several automobile firms have either been sacked or been asked to not report for duty until the business improves. In addition to the contractual employees, there were also some regular employees who complained that their salaries were not being paid in full by the auto firms.

It is important to note that from October last year several of these firms have sacked hundreds of its employees citing sluggish sales. Some of the sacked workers had put in more than eight years of their service into these firms. While the anger and disappointment of these employees remained, the months of extreme lockdown in the months of April and May further deteriorated the conditions.

Facing large scale protests from December last year, most of the automobile manufacturers had stated that they would bring back the employees once the business situation improves and there are sales go up.

"It is important for the automobile firms to take care of the employees who have put in years of service in the factories and have contributed to the business growth. Most of the contractual employees were not made permanent even though they had put in years of service in the firms," said Praveen Kumar, one of the aggrieved employees.

Gurugram is one of the major automobile manufacturing hubs in the country. It is estimated that 60 per cent of motorcycle manufacturing and 40 per cent of the car production is done from Gurugram.