New Delhi: Factory floors were deserted on Tuesday (April 14) as contractual workers protesting across Noida, Faridabad and nearby areas for higher wages and better working conditions, rejected the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments’ wage hike proposal, calling it inadequate. This is after clashes with police turned violent, leading to arrests and political reactions.

In Noida, workers reiterated their demand for a minimum basic monthly salary of Rs 20,000, to be at par with Haryana where the government had recently announced a 35% hike. They have also demanded that salaries and payslips be issued by the 10th of every month to meet with bill requirements, double pay for overtime work, transfer bonuses credited directly to bank accounts, along with a guaranteed weekly off.

Mint reported that empty factory floors and police patrols had replaced the usual shift-change bustle in the industrial sectors of Noida. Police are also making “precautionary” arrests. 

“We’re rounding up any individual who is or has shown any tendency of public violence. The goal is to return all proceedings back to normal,” Amit Tomar, station house officer of Sector 58 police station, was quoted as saying by the daily.

Meanwhile, in Haryana, workers have said that the recent increase doesn’t cut it in comparison to their expenses. 

The Nayab Singh Saini government had raised the salaries of contractual workers on April 9. The minimum wage for unskilled workers was increased to Rs 15,220.71 and that of skilled workers was raised to Rs 19,420.85. This comes to Rs 582.4 per day and Rs 747.14 per day for unskilled and skilled workers, respectively.

The protesting workers and unions have, however, said that this is less than what was unanimously recommended by the State Minimum Wage Committee in December. 

Jai Bhagwan, general secretary of the Haryana chapter of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), told The Indian Express that that figure was Rs 23,196 per month. As a result, the hike is far from what workers demanded.

How protests spilled onto Noida’s streets

As protests grew bigger on Monday in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, several major roads were choked up, with traffic jams continuing until the evening. While the Yogi Adityanath government approved an interim hike of around 21% in minimum wages for workers in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad, trade unions complained that the minimum wage was still nowhere close to that in the rest of the national capital region.

The minimum wage in Uttar Pradesh for unskilled workers was raised to Rs 13,690, whereas for skilled workers it was increased to Rs 16,868.

It must be noted that the protests did not occur suddenly. Over the past few months, there have been waves of workers' protests across cities like Panipat, Surat, Singrauli and Manesar and has now spread to Noida, Greater Noida and Faridabad. The anxiety over rising prices of LPG and other essential commodities in the wake of the West Asia crisis have added to the deep dissatisfaction over the low wages.

Lathi-charge, arrests

Following two days of dharna by contractual labour outside factories, protests turned violent on Monday as several demonstrators started pelting stones, smashing vehicles and setting some of them on fire. Over 42,000 workers had taken to the streets across 83 locations in Noida, as per officials.

While the exact cause of the violence was unclear, Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Rajeev Krishna claimed that “provocative elements” and “external elements” were involved, and “firm legal action will follow once their identities are established”. Initially, chief minister Adityanath had issued a statement invoking a Naxalism angle and alleging a conspiracy.

Police allegedly resorted to lathi-charge, while some workers also alleged the use of tear gas.

According to The New Indian Express report, Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh confirmed that more than 300 individuals had been arrested in connection with the protests. At least seven FIRs have been registered and on Monday alone.

On the other hand, employers have expressed concern about the disruptions, noting that a steep wage increase would be difficult to sustain.

Trade unions, opposition leaders react

Several opposition parties and Central Trade Unions (CTUs) have blamed the unrest in industrial belts on the Union government’s “unilateral” announcement on the implementation of the four Labour Codes.

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has called for a nationwide protest on April 16, demanding a minimum wage of Rs 26,000 per month, an eight-hour workday, and the abolition of the contract labour system. They also slammed the new Labour codes as a “ruthless exploitation” to legalise 13-hour workdays and weaken trade union rights.

The All India Central Council of Trade Union (AICCTU) also strongly condemned Adityanath’s statement and the police action, calling it “repressive”. “We demand that the Chief Minister and the Labour Minister take back such malafide statements and apologise to the working class of the country,” they stated, demanding the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to stop the crackdown and release all arrested workers and trade union activists.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) accused the governments for having “shamelessly insinuated that genuine protests are being instigated by external forces and branded workers’ leaders as conspirators”.

They also alleged police raids and house arrests of leaders. “It is being reported that the police are raiding villages, indiscriminately beating up workers and arresting hundreds of them. The whereabouts of the arrested workers are not being shared with their families. Com. Gangeshwar Dutt Sharma, Delhi state committee member of CPI (M) and Com. Ram Swarath, General Secretary of CITU Noida district committee, has been under house arrest for the last few days,” the party said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the chief minister for linking the protests to a conspiracy. “If the honourable chief minister is calling the Noida workers’ movement a conspiracy, was your intelligence police accompanying you during campaigning in Bengal?” Yadav said in a post on X.

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