Samsung Electronics workers at a plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu are being paid almost twice as much as workers at neighboring companies, the South Korean group said on Tuesday, as a factory strike entered its third week.
Since September 9, more than 1,000 workers have stopped work and protested in a makeshift tent outside a Samsung home appliance factory near the city of Chennai.
They are demanding higher wages and union recognition at the plant, which generates about a third of Samsung’s $12 billion (roughly Rs. 100,359 crore) annual revenue in India.
Commenting on wages for the first time, Samsung said in a statement: “The average monthly salary of our production workers at the Chennai plant is 1.8 times the average salary of similar workers at other companies in the region.”
The Samsung plant is located next to units of global giants such as Foxconn and Dell, in an area popular for car and electronics manufacturing.
“Our employees are also entitled to overtime pay and other benefits, and we provide a work environment that ensures the highest standards of health, safety and welfare,” Samsung said, adding that it was ready to work with employees to resolve their grievances. , so that they can return to work as soon as possible.
Samsung’s protests cast a shadow over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to attract more foreign investors to “Make in India” and triple electronics manufacturing to $500 billion (roughly Rs. 41,81,635 crore) in six years. This is the largest such strike in India in recent years.
Veera Raghava Rao, Tamil Nadu’s labor minister, said on Tuesday that efforts were ongoing to resolve the dispute.
Samsung workers earn an average of 25,000 rupees ($300) a month and are demanding another 36,000 rupees ($430) a month for three years, according to the CITU labor group leading the strike.
Last week, Samsung warned its striking workers that they would not be paid if they continued to protest, Reuters reported.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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