गैस महंगी, किराया बढ़ा… इतनी सैलरी में कैसे चले घर, नोएडा में प्रोटेस्ट कर रहे मजदूरों का दर्द – noida protest salary hike demands lpg gas room rent price hike overtime duty ntcpkb
The movement of workers demanding increase in wages in Noida, adjacent to Delhi, has turned violent. The anger of factory workers has come out on the streets in different industrial areas of Noida. The workers protesting on the streets are demanding increase in salaries, saying that in the era of inflation, it has become difficult to survive on such low salaries.
Noida The protest started by the workers demanding increase in wages in the Hosiery Complex located in Phase-2 has engulfed the entire Noida. After Phase-2 and Ecotech-3, now workers have taken to the streets in Noida Sector-62 and Noida Sector 15 also.
The movement of employees protesting outside different companies in Noida suddenly turned violent on Monday. aajtak.in spoke to all the protesting workers. Know their demand and the reason for taking to the streets to protest…
Who is behind the labor movement in Noida?
Richa Global is believed to be behind the workers’ movement in Noida. A unit of Richa Globan is located in Faridabad, Haryana, where workers were protesting for the last several days demanding salary increase. There, after the decision of Haryana Government to increase the salary, the company management approved the salary increase of up to 35 percent, under which the salary of technical staff was increased to Rs 20,000 and the salary of non-technical staff was increased to Rs 15,000. Only after this decision, hundreds of workers working in four other factories of Richa Global located in Noida Phase-2 also started demanding equal salary increase.
Anuj Kumar (name changed), working as an operator in Richa Global in Noida Phase-2, while talking to aajtak.in, said that our demand is to increase the salary, if the same Richa Global company has increased the salary of its employees and laborers at the Faridabad unit of Haryana, then why are the employees of Noida being discriminated against? When we workers talked to the company’s GM and HR about this issue, they refused to pay salaries equal to those of Haryana. In Noida, the salary has been increased by only Rs 361, which is not fair.
Expensive gas became the reason for the movement
Due to the ongoing war with America and Iran, workers are facing the brunt of the shortage of LPG gas. Sunil Kumar, who works at Richa Global, says that LPG gas is not available. Gas which used to be available at Rs 80 per kg is now available at Rs 400 to Rs 500 per kg, for that also we have to struggle. Many of our employees are not able to buy expensive gas, due to which they have left the job. The company is far from understanding our pain, it is not even willing to listen. Today, the increased price of gas has become a major reason behind workers taking to the streets, because we have had to bear this direct blow.
India Federation Trade Union Secretary Jai Prakash also says that about 20 thousand employees work in Richa Garments Global, they are being paid a salary of only Rs 11282, which is quite low considering the current inflation. At present, LPG is available at Rs 400 per kg and now tell us how to survive on a monthly salary of Rs 11283 thousand. That is why the workers have been forced to take to the streets to protest.
House rent is expensive, but salary is the same
In Noida, house rent and prices of food items are the same as in Delhi, but the salary of laborers working in Noida is not like in Delhi. Anuj Sharma, who works in a sewing factory, says that the landlord has now increased the rent for one room, which was Rs 3300 per month, to Rs 4500 per month. Every food item has become expensive, from oil to pulses and vegetables, but our salary is the same as before.
Anuj says that our salary is Rs 11,283 per month, but we are given only Rs 10,500, whereas Rs 16,000 is written on the paper on which we are made to sign for salary. Can we live in Noida for Rs 10,000? We have come from Madhubani in Bihar. How can we live our lives with so little money in this inflationary situation? All the salary we get is spent on house rent and food.
Sarita, one of the protestors, says, I work in Motherson. They are giving us less salary. We want more salary. When we protested by sitting on dharna, they beat us without any fault of ours. Cylinders, vegetables and everything has become expensive. Today when we protested demanding increase in our salaries, we were beaten. My feet hurt. My demand is that we should be given Rs 20,000 as salary. Only then will we be able to survive in Noida.
8 hours duty, 10 to 12 hours work
Sarita says that she has 8 hours of duty, but is made to work for 10 to 12 hours. No separate payment is given for work beyond duty. In today’s time, one should get a salary of at least Rs 18 to 20 thousand in Noida, whereas at present the salary of the operator is Rs 11000 and the operator is getting only around Rs 13500. It is not possible to survive with such little money, because the cost of gas cylinder is up to Rs 4000 and room rent has to be paid up to Rs 4000. Children’s education expenses have to be borne separately.
During the protest, female laborer Rekha expressed her pain and said that there is huge target pressure in the company and she is not even allowed to go to the toilet. Told that there is constant pressure by the company management to meet the target, there is no time even to drink water and they are made to work continuously by sitting in front of machines.
Abuse on asking for overtime
The employees alleged that even the slightest protest was met with misbehavior and abuse by the officials. He says that work is done continuously for 10 to 12 hours, but overtime payment is not given properly and many times the work is done at single rate only. The protesting workers said that while the salary of the company’s staff increases by thousands of rupees every year, the workers get an increase of only Rs 100 to Rs 200.
The workers clearly said that we want our rights and the movement will continue until their demands are met. At present the situation in the area remains tense and the workers’ protest continues. In this way the workers expressed their pain, they said that the Haryana government has increased the wages, but in UP they still have to work at the old wages.
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