Ankleshwar, Gujarat: Ankleshwar is a town on the Vadodara-Surat highway, a well laid out grid that’s home to the industrial units of a bunch of big corporate names. There are about 5,000 plants of various sizes in the town, making it one of Asia’s largest hubs for the chemicals industry.
There is a price to be paid. At night, parts of the town take on an eerie glow thanks to the pall of chemicals that seem to permanently hang in the air, making it hard to breathe.
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Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, which runs the industrial cluster in Ankleshwar, makes much of the fact that it’s a “most customer-oriented corporation...with a vision of accelerating pace of industrialization in the state of Gujarat”, according to its website.
That surge of enthusiasm doesn’t leave much space for the likes of Manoj Verma, 30, who used to work in a manufacturing unit of Lupin Ltd, India’s fifth largest drug manufacturing company.
In 2006, about 600 contract workers unnerved the company management when they demanded that their wages and overtime pay be brought on par with those who were employed full-time. They also wanted monthly payment slips and the freedom to register a trade union. They also wanted safety gear, such as boots, helmets and protective clothing.
Danger in the air: (top) A factory belches smoke in Ankleshwar; (above) Manoj Verma was one of about 600 contract workers at a Lupin Ltd plant who demanded to be put on a par with full-time employees. All 600 were fired in batches over several months, according to his lawyer.
In response, the company fired all of them, including Verma, in batches over several months, according to Mohammed Siddiq Mansuri, the lawyer who’s representing the workers in conciliation proceedings in a case of illegal termination.
Mint couldn’t independently ascertain the reason these workers were fired.
Only 296 of the above cases have been referred to the industrial tribunal in the last three years, Mansuri said. The document referring the cases to the tribunal was reviewed by Mint. The lawyer said that the contractor violated rules by employing about twice the number of workers that he was given the licence for.
Lupin did not respond to a written questionnaire sent by Mint but it’s corporate communications head, Shamsher Gorawara, said over the telephone from Mumbai that the information was “factually incorrect,” without giving any details.
Across the sprawling industrial complex bristling with chemical, paint and drug factories, contract employees who work in hazardous conditions are rarely provided equipment such as masks and gloves, unless absolutely necessary, according to Mansuri.
Trade union leader Dahyabhai Solanki, president of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation Employees’ Union, echoes this view.
“Even if safety gear is provided, it’s no use because contract workers rarely get trained like the regular workers on how to use them,” Solanki said.