365 days and counting...24x7 protest turns a year for ITI workers

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: It has been a year since workers of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Limited, one of the country’s largest public sector undertakings (PSUs), were sacked without notice allegedly for attempting to unionise and demand pay due to them in the lockdown period.

The workers were involved in making telecommunication equipment, particularly for India’s defence forces, and some of them have been working with ITI for over two decades. Hemanth Kumar, one of the workers who has been sacked, said that they have been punished for voicing their concerns and the issues with payments.

“Barricades were put up in front of the gate and the security staff told us that we no longer have our jobs,” he said. He explained that the 80 axed workers had joined the Karnataka General Labour Union (KGLU) leading to the turn of events. The workers are going to protest until they get their jobs back.

According to a fact-finding report, 28 workers from ITI had earlier moved a labour court in August 2020 seeking compensation by the management for the period of the first lockdown. They had eventually received compensation but as 80 more workers joined the union, the management allegedly terminated their contracts without prior notice.

“The management considered this as an affront and terminated them without any explanation. At present, 80 contract workers have been refused employment; many of them have been harassed and intimidated for unionising and trying to demand their rights,” the report said.

The report carrying testimonies of the workers has also documented how the workers were paid based on their educational qualifications instead of their experience or skill in the field since the first lockdown. “This is a form of coded discrimination since it is well known that many workers from lower class and caste backgrounds may not have had the same educational opportunities as elite classes and castes.

As a result, several workers who were doing ‘highly skilled’ jobs saw their wages fall significantly because they did not have the required educational qualification. And yet, the nature of their jobs remained the same,” the report said.

On 28 April, 2022 Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communication issued a letter that all the workers who had been removed by Management of ITI would be taken back to service in a phased manner. However till date, one year after the illegal termination, the words of the Minister have not been adhered to and the management has not taken back the workers.