Unions representing workers across Siemens plants have formed the Siemens Employees’ Federation to represent the interests of Siemens workers throughout India.
Unions representing workers across Siemens plants have formed the Siemens Employees’ Federation to represent the interests of Siemens workers throughout India.
In Mumbai, On December 2, representatives of Siemens unions across India celebrated the registration of the newly-formed Siemens Employees’ Federation at a meeting convened by International Metalworkers Federation. The Siemens Federation brings together unions affiliated to trade union centers controlled by different political parties.
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 as per official record. The unions have challenged this practice in the courts.
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.
Siemens India has so far refused 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.