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Cement workers fighting for their rights by Aman Sethi

Company consistently violated tenets of Cement Wage Board Award

ACC says it is studying the court ruling and examining options

Every evening about 500 workers shrug off the exhaustion of an eight-hour shift to protest outside the premises of ACC Ltd.'s Jamul cement factory in Durg, Chhattisgarh. Closed fists swing rhythmically to chants of “Inqilab zindabad,” as factory veterans who have been protesting for 20 years stand beside young men with little more than two years of work experience.

One of India's largest cement manufacturers, ACC Ltd. was acquired by Swiss cement giant Holcim in 2005 via a transaction routed through Ambuja Cement Pvt. Ltd. Holcim currently promotes both ACC and Ambuja Cements.

“We are demanding that the management comply with the directions of the High Court and regularise us,” said Rajkumar Sahu of the Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), shielding his eyes from the slanting five o' clock sun. Mr. Sahu said he had been a contract worker at ACC's Jamul plant since 1989 and had been pushing for regularisation of workers since 1991.

Twenty years after the workers began their protests, the Chhattisgarh High Court directed the ACC to provide permanent employment to members of Mr. Sahu's union in March this year. Workers say the High Court's directions are yet to be implemented. ACC spokesperson Nand Kumar said the company was still examining the repercussions of the ruling.

An agreement between Indian cement manufacturers and trade unions prohibits the use of contract labour in the cement industry in any sector except for packing and loading and mandates that even such contract labour must be compensated at the same rates as regular employees.

However, workers say that ACC has consistently violated the tenets of the Cement Wage Board Award of 1983. “The company is using contract workers in all aspects of production in the Jamul plant,” said Mr. Sahu, “I have been working for 20 years, but my salary is the same as a worker who joined yesterday.” Mr. Sahu says most contract workers are paid the minimum wage of Rs. 151 per day.

Old timers say the struggle for permanent work began in 1990 under the leadership of trade unionist Shankar Guha Niyogi. Although Mr. Niyogi was killed in 1991, cement workers from factories across Bhilai and Durg embarked on a series of demonstrations that culminated in the Bhilai police firing in 1992.

“In June [1992] workers would gather at a place and hold a demonstration, the next day more would join us and we would move a little way down the road and hold another meeting that evening,” said Ramadhar Gandharv, who has been working as a contract worker since 1981. “It went on like this for one month until we covered the 7 km stretch from the Ravanbhata labour to the rail line.” Mr. Gandharv said the workers were demanding the implementation of the 1983 wage board agreement and the regularisation of contract workers involved in the production process.

On July 1 1992, workers squatted on the Mumbai-Howrah railway line only to be fired upon by the police. Workers say 15 workers died that day, three of whom were from ACC's Jamul plant.

In 2000, the dispute between PCSS and ACC Jamul was taken up by the State Industrial Court. Workers alleged that they were actually employees of ACC, but had been shown as a contractor's employees to deny them the benefits of permanent employment. In 2006, the Industrial Court held that “all the workers under reference are the company's employees and the company has entered into fake and sham contracts to make it believe it is the contractor's employees” and directed the company to regularise the workers.

In March this year, the Bilaspur High Court partially upheld the Industrial Court's order and directed the company to employ those workers who were demonstrably part of the PCSS. “The number of workmen who come under the purview of the latest judgment is yet to be ascertained,” said the ACC spokesperson in an emailed statement, “ACC is studying the ruling and examining options available to the company.”

“It is hard to understand why a multi-national cement giant like Holcim is reluctant to regularise contract workers despite judgments of two Indian courts,” said Sudha Bharadwaj, counsel for the workers, “Today Holcim pays European workmen $8 per hour and Indian contract workers about $2.17 a day.”