Labour Minister writes to Tamil Nadu CM to resolve Samsung strike

Amidst the ongoing strike at Samsung’s Sriperumbudur plant in Tamil Nadu, the Centre has written to the Tamil Nadu government for a resolution of the issue.

According to sources, Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya has written a letter to the MK Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to intervene in the strike.  

“The minister has urged the state government to intervene for an early and amicable resolution for maintaining positive manufacturing sector ecosystem. He also assured full support from the Union Labour Ministry to help the state in resolving the matter efficiently,” said a source familiar with the development.

The strike has now been on for nearly three weeks and an estimated 1,300 workers from the Samsung home appliances plant have been protesting since September 9 on a number of demands including higher pay and recognition of a Union.

“The demands are to attain their Right to Association, Right to Collective Bargaining and initiation of fruitful discussion by the management with the majority Union,” said a recent statement by Centre of Indian Trade Unions, which is leading the strike. It further said that workers at the Sriperumbudur plant are subjected to ‘long working hours, torturous intensity of work pressure’ to finish each produce like refrigerator, washing machine or TV within 10-15 seconds, non-stop work for four to five hours at a stretch and unsafe working conditions.

“In contrast to the Samsung workers in Seoul who receive Rs 4.5-6.0 lakh on average as wages and salaries, their Indian counterparts are working in meagre Rs 20,000-25,000 per month,” it further noted.

Refuting this claim, Samsung, in a statement, had said that the average monthly salary of its full-time manufacturing workers at the Chennai plant is 1.8 times the average salary of similar workers employed at other companies in the region.