2 December, 2010Unions representing workers across Siemens plants have formed the Siemens Employees' Federation to represent the interests of Siemens workers throughout India
MUMBAI: Representatives of Siemens unions across India celebrated the registration of the newly-formed Siemens Employees' Federation at a meeting convened by IMF and FES to plan strategies for the Federation which, exceptionally for India, brings together unions affiliated to different national confederations.
The new Federation faces many challenges. In many plants contract and casual workers exceed 50 per cent of the workforce. In addition, Siemens India has devised a particularly divisive strategy to prevent workers from joining trade unions. Workers are arbitrarily reclassified as 'officers', with no change to their duties, and are then expressly forbidden to join a trade union as they are considered to be executives. Workers are offered pay rises as an inducement to renounce their trade union rights with the result that in some plants there are now production areas that have no workers in them.
The unions have challenged this practice in the courts, but have not so far been successful. Concerted action against Siemens India will be needed to stop the company from breaking the unions in this way.
The meeting concluded by agreeing on the major issues for action by the Siemens Employees' Federation. These include stamping out the practice of false classification of workers as officers, fighting for parity in wages and conditions between Siemens plants in India, sharing information to stop management from playing one plant off against another, limiting the percentage of contract workers and ensuring equal pay between contract and regular workers. To achieve these aims, the Federation needs to create a database of collective agreements, train representatives and gather information on supply chain workers and working conditions.
Siemens India so far refuses to recognize the Siemens Employees' Federation, despite its registration by the authorities, so an urgent task is to secure recognition of the Federation by Siemens so that it can negotiate with the company on behalf of all Siemens workers in India. The Federation is also calling on Siemens to sign an International Framework Agreement with the IMF.
The Federation plans to eventually count among its membership workers in all Siemens plants in India, as well as workers in the company's supply chain. Its goal is to make the existence of the Federation visible and to demonstrate to management that the unions are united.