Garment and Fashion Workers Union (GAFWU), a Bengaluru-based leading NGO, has won a legal battle against SLAM Clothing which had locked out and dismissed workers using fraudulent letters with fake signatures.
An industrial tribunal awarded reinstatement of the 150 workers illegally locked out by the management, along with payment of back wages and seniority benefits.
The court order granting payment of back wages will help the union fight for the recovery of wages against SLAM Clothing.
IndustriALL Global Union informed on its website that the management of SLAM Clothing, which has a factory near Chennai, locked out workers to stop them from entering the factory following the union’s demand for the payment of outstanding wages.
It further added that instead of engaging with the union or approaching the Government for permission to close the factory, as is required under law, the management chose to block workers from entering the factory.
This means the factory was unilaterally shut by the management who also forged workers’ signatures on the resignation letters.
GAFWU raised the matter of the illegal lockout with the Labour Commissioner’s office. Due to the management’s refusal to participate in the conciliation process, there was no agreement reached between the management and the workers. Thus, the Labour Commissioner’s office referred the matter to an industrial tribunal for adjudication.
Palani Bharathi, General Secretary of GAFWU, said “Our fight will only intensify from here. We have won the battle in the courtroom but management that arrogantly chose to sit out the entire proceedings still needs to be held accountable for the serious violations of workers’ rights.”
“We applaud the workers’ court victory against the anti-union antics of the management at SLAM Clothing, and hope that this comes as a lesson to some employers that more can be achieved in building industrial peace by listening to workers’ grievances and paying their wages on time,” says Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL Regional Secretary for South Asia.
