Workers of Harsoria Healthcare (Gurgaon) stage a sit-in strike

Shyambir
Santosh Kumar

For the past couple of days (from April 24 onwards) about 450-500 workers of Harsoria Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Udyog Vihar, Phase-4, Gurgaon have been sitting inside the factory premises in protest. The factory has 250 permanent workers, 300 contract workers and about 50 casual workers. They are protesting against the termination of the services of their three union leaders and the suspension of 10 workers. The services of two of these leaders were terminated in Dec. 2011, while another was fired in February, 2012. The demands of the workers include payment of Deepawali bonus and regularisation of the services of casual and contract workers. The workers are also protesting against the frequent change in their departments, delay in payment of salary, increased work intensity and non-payment of loyalty bonus of about Rs. 1500 per month on completion of 4 years with the company.

There was a strike in April 2011 in this factory when the management dismissed 7 workers out of which 6 of them were taken back following negotiations. The services of three of these workers have been terminated again. There was a lathicharge against the workers during the April 2011 strike and 7 workers were arrested and implicated in a number of cases including one against the hoisting of the union flag at the factory gate. Around 21 workers had been implicated in one case or the other. The workers are demanding the withdrawal of these cases. Meanwhile the company management has ordered the termination of services of 100 more workers. The management has also declared that it does not want to see the permanent workers within the company premises.