Siemens Dialog
https://www.dialog-igmetall.de/nachrichten/india-siemens-employee-federation-will-make-efforts-on-organizing-precarious-workers
29.03.2024, 14:03 Uhr

India: Siemens Employee Federation will make efforts on organizing Precarious Workers

  • 17.11.2013
  • International

Siemens Employee Federation will set up 3 year project to make efforts on organizing all workers working directly or indirectly for the Siemens in India to ensure them the same equal rights and working conditions as of the permanent workers.

<link http: www.industriall-union.org _blank external-link-new-window global>IndustriALL Global Union organized a Siemens Employees Federation (SEF) network meeting on 16.-18. October, in Thane, Maharashtra in India. 19 trade union leaders from 12 plants of Siemens, together with Kan Matsuzaki, director ICT Electrical&Electronics of IndustriALL and Dirk Linder, the representative of IG Metall, actively discussed on the agenda as follows;
•    Current situation and issues on the unions of the SEF
•    Promoting sustainable workplace and union activities focusing on precarious work
•    Implementation of the Siemens global framework agreement and its training

The Siemens Group in India employs over 18,000 workers. The group has 21 manufacturing plants with wide network of supply chains across the country. Unions of the SEF organize approximately 4,000 workers in 12 manufacturing plants, and it is the biggest union network on Siemens workers within South Asia and Southeast Asia region.

Throughout the discussions, the union leaders from different locations shared common issues that the workers of the Siemens in India have been facing serious pressure by the management over the years such as increase of precarious workers (contract and agency workers) in the workplaces, the shifting jobs from organized workplaces to un-organized workplaces, de-unionization and unwished promotion forced by the management (<link http: www.industriall-union.org global-networks-and-gfa-expected-to-defend-workers-rights-at-siemens-in-india _blank external-link-new-window>report by IndustriAll). The unions also reported that the precarious workers working at Siemens or the Siemens’ suppliers are restrained from joining or forming unions and there is a significant gap between them and the permanent workers with regards to wages, health-care benefits and social security.

To tackle those issues, the unions have agreed that the SEF needs to gain its union density at all workplaces of Siemens and to be more powerful on collective negotiation with the management as the union network. At the meeting, the unions unanimously adopted the resolution on the organizing workers including precarious workers which highlighted “ It is resolved that all employees working , directly or indirectly for the company, whether in the premises of the company or outside the company will be allowed to be members of respective constituent unions. The unions will make efforts to ensure them the same equal rights, wages and working conditions as of the permanent workers of the company,” and will set up 3 year project to make efforts on organizing all workers working directly or indirectly for the Siemens in India to ensure them the same equal rights and working conditions as of the permanent workers.

The SEF also strongly demanded that the Siemens GFA should be implemented at all workplaces of Siemens and it need to be functioned to help developing the union network of SEF to defend the workers’ rights and interests.

With the view to implement GFA it was decided that SEF will train 55 union representatives. The training will be on  ILO’s core labour standards and significance of other clauses of the GFA.

Since Siemens in India has its largest operations in South Asia and South East Asia, it is expected that the next Meta-cluster meeting should be held in India. IndustriAll should support SEF to establish links with unions from these regions before the meeting.

On 18 October, Kan Matsuzaki, director ICT Electrical&Electronics of IndustriALL, and Dirk Linder, the representative of IG Metall, met with the HR management of Siemens India and exchange views on the importance of trade union network and the implementation of the GFA. The management expressed their intention towards creating good and constructive relationship with the Siemens unions and will post the GFAs in local languages at the workplaces, in cooperation with the unions as the first step of the implementation.

IndustriALL Global Union and IG Metall will continue to support the activities of the SEF and will focus on the implementation of the GFA as signatory parties.