A product of Kapasan ITI in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district, Mr. Bhambi specialises in the fitter trade. After finishing his course in 2004, he spent a year looking for a job. Another year was spent apprenticing with J.K. Cements, where he was paid a salary of Rs.1,090 per month. He was asked to leave after the end of his one-year apprenticeship.
Back in the job market, he joined Hero Honda’s Dharuhera plant in June 2006, where he earned Rs.6,500 per month. On December 13, 2006, he joined the Manesar plant as trainee on a salary of Rs.2,700 per month.
On why he left a high-paying job for a low-paying one, he said: “The Hero Honda job was a contract job. They let you go after six months. The Maruti job was a permanent one.”
Mr. Bhambi worked as a trainee at the Manesar plant for three years. In December 2009, he received the letter of permanent employment. On July 18, 2012, the life he knew changed forever.
On whether he now feels that he should have stayed away from union activity, Mr. Bhambi said: “I don’t regret my union work because those working at the Manesar factory today enjoy slightly better working conditions than we did. But it hurt to be in jail for raising your voice against injustice.”
The son of a farmer, he surrendered before the police on July 24, 2012.
“The police had picked up my brother and his son, and was threatening them. I surrendered at the police station to save them.”
Regularisation of contract workers, he said, was the bone of contention between the management and the union . “This demand of ours got buried after we were jailed. Today, a permanent worker at Maruti earns up to Rs.50,000, while a contract worker gets just Rs.17,000 for the same work. How do you stop such malpractices without an independent union?”
According to a Livemint report on August 17, 2016, the number of contract workers at Maruti from 2013 to 2016 increased by 61.5 per cent, while the increase in the number of permanent workers during the same period was just 5.67 per cent.
‘The police had picked up my
brother and his
son. I surrendered
to save them’
