Chennai: Workers of the Samsung India Electronics Private Limited factory at Sriperumbudur, who were on strike since September 9 pressing for a charter of demands, agreed to call off the agitation and return to work after arriving at an agreement with the management in the presence of labour welfare officers on Tuesday.
As per the agreement reached at, for the sake of industrial harmony and general peace, the company would not victimize any of the employees, who would in turn cooperate with the management and not indulge in any activity detrimental to the interest of Samsung, an official press release on Tuesday said
The company also agreed to present in writing its stand on the workers’ demands relating to wage hike and other general grievances to the labour officers, the release said, adding that State Ministers for PWD, E V Velu, for MSMEs, T M Anbarasan, for Labour Welfare, C V Ganesan and for Industries T R B Rajaa were involved in the talks held at the behest of Chief Minister M K Stalin for the past few days at the Secretariat.
Earlier, when the government had announced that an agreement had been signed by a workers’ committee and Samsung management on October 7 to end the strike, the CITU that had been spearheading the protest came out with a denial and announced that the strike was on.
The bone of contention was Samsung’s refusal to recognize the CITU-affiliated union on the ground that a case on the issue was pending in a court. The rest of the demands had been acceded to, the government had claimed then.
But the workers continued the strike despite facing stiff opposition from the police, who even dismantled the shed they had put up in a premises near their factory, which led to the issue taking a political contour.
A slew of leaders from various political parties, including DMK’s electoral allies, rushed to express solidarity with the workers, who were arrested along with CITU general secretary A Soundararajan, and detained in a marriage hall.
So Stalin assigned his four Ministers to find a solution to the imbroglio and they held talks with the management and the workers, who attended along with CITU leaders.
After the agreement was reached on Tuesday, Soundarajan told the media that the general council of the CITU would meet on Wednesday and ratify the decision taken at the negotiations. He said CITU agreed to wait for the court verdict and abide by it on the issue of giving recognition to the union affiliated with CITU.
