GURAGON: Trade unions on Monday demanded that workers arrested after protests seeking a hike in minimum wages at IMT Manesar on April 9 be released immediately, and called a statewide protest on April 16.In a memorandum submitted to the Haryana govt, the unions condemned the “unprovoked repression” of peaceful protesters. CITU state vice-president Satbir Singh said workers were struggling amid rising inflation, high rents and soaring essential commodity prices, while working 12-hour shifts without overtime or minimum wages.District president Suresh Nauhra said the administration used force instead of dialogue and later announced an “inadequate” wage hike under pressure.While the state govt on April 9 issued a notification to increase the minimum wages by 35%, with effect from April 1, trade unions are demanding a minimum monthly wage of Rs 30,000 and an end to “harassment” of workers.Fifty-five people, around 20 of them women, were arrested after two FIRs on charges of attempt to murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, obstruction of public servants and property damage were filed after hundreds of contractual workers working across multiple companies in IMT Manesar vandalised and set fire to police vehicles and clashed with cops during the protest seeking higher wages.Eleven people were arrested in one of the FIRs filed on charges of attempt to murder on the complaint of Richa Global Exports Pvt Ltd and Modelama Exports Pvt Ltd at the Sector 7 IMT Manesar police station. Later, around seven to eight more people were arrested and charged with attempt to murder. “The repressive attitude of the BJP govt and the police towards workers, especially women, is highly condemnable,” Singh said. “Labour laws are not being enforced, and minimum wages have not been revised for the past six years. The govt has shut its eyes to this reality,” he said. Forty-four people were arrested last week in connection with the second FIR, filed on the complaint of Modelama Exports, which accused 300-400 workers of pelting stones, vandalising vehicles and property at the factory’s Sector 4 unit. On Monday, six more people were arrested in connection with the violence. According to sources, 55 were produced before a local court, which remanded 11 of them to 14 days’ judicial custody.
