After a hundred days

An ITI fact-finding team released a report on the injustice to ITI workers-- almost half of whom are Dalits-- on the 100th day of their protest. Akash Bhattacharya and team chronicle their struggle

On 1st December 2021, 80 workers of India’s first Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), M/s Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Limited based in Bengaluru, were terminated with little justification. Despite having worked for between 3 to 35 years, workers are guised as “contract workers.” The retrenchment of the workers is only one part of a longer history of labour abuse at ITI. In recent times, as with all PSUs, ITI contract workers have been rendered increasingly precarious: they are punished for unionising, denied timely payment of wages and benefits, and are subjected to arbitrary de-promotions and humiliations, not to mention abrupt terminations.

The ITI workers’ struggle enters its 100th day on 10th March 2022. Coinciding with the 100th day, a fact-finding team of concerned citizens has released a 25-page report summarising the abuses faced by the retrenched workers.

Despite providing emergency services during the first covid wave in 2020, ITI downgraded contract workers from “skilled” to “unskilled” soon after, based purely on their level of education, not experience.Coded discrimination, disproportionately affecting women and people from marginalised castes and classes, is a key feature of the contract labour system—a fact that must be recognized by the broader public.

Of the 80 workers who were terminated, nearly half are from Dalit backgrounds and a large number are women.

The Regional Central Labour Commissioner has deemed ITI’s actions as a violation of the Industrial Disputes Act and has insisted that the workers be reinstated. Despite facing a suite of labour rights cases, ITI has refused to comply.

The report authors, who have also communicated the facts at hand to senior government representatives in New Delhi and Karnataka, strongly condemn the unlawful activities of ITI and demand penal action against the PSU.

The fact-finding team stands with the retrenched contract workers, who have come together to form the Karnataka General Labour Union (KGLU), affiliated with the All-India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU). The demands of the workers are as follows: to be immediately reinstated; to be allowed to unionise without fear of retaliation; to receive decent living wages and benefits (including maternity benefits); and to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as core workers of the company—and as called for by the law.