Various civil rights organisations and trade unions have come forward to express solidarity with labour activists facing police action in Noida over the April 13 protest in the city seeking a hike in minimum wages. The protest turned violent, leading to arson and large-scale vandalism.
IFTU Condemns Police Action
The national committee of Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) on Tuesday expressed shock over Noida police being allowed to access mobile phones of Satyam Verma, Aditya Anand and Himanshu Thakur. Calling the move an attack on the constitutional right of labourers to unionise, IFTU national general secretary T Sriniwas said the right to organise workers, to make them conscious of their legal rights, and to struggle for demands are all guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
“The Noida police has tried to paint any attempts to organise workers as equivalent to inciting violence. In fact, it is a move to paint any attempt to organise workers as a criminal act,” he said.
Minimum Wage Violations
IFTU said whether the state government’s announcements under the Minimum Wages Act were being violated by companies and factory owners or not was settled by the licence cancellation and blacklisting of contractors after the protest, disbursal of dues they held back, and the 21% hike government made in minimum wages. “IFTU has long demanded a common minimum wage for Delhi-NCR to stop exploitation of the workforce by companies moving from one area to another to avoid the higher minimum wage fought for and won by workers in Delhi in the past,” Sriniwas said.
Appeal to Judiciary
IFTU appealed to the higher judiciary to protect workers’ constitutional right to organise and release arrested workers and activists.
Rights Groups Demand Release
Meanwhile, various rights groups congregated at the Press Club in Delhi under the banner of Satyam Varma Rihai Manch and sought his release along with the co-accused.
“Satyam has been arrested because police and the administration want to shut down an important voice that is critical of the present regime by putting him behind bars. It is because he regularly writes on people’s issues and problems and is a vocal critic of government policies and because he is associated with several institutions and writes for Mazdoor Bigul that he has been arrested,” Satyam Rihai Manch’s Kavita Krishnapallavi said.
