Indian Labor Minister Oscar Fernandez, who is scheduled to visit the incident site tomorrow, the 24th Sept’08, at Greater Noida, where the CEO of Graziano Transmissions India was lynched, warned the managements of companies not to push the workers ‘so hard’ that incidents like lynching happens again.
He told reporters in New Delhi, “The workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to what happened in Noida (killing of CEO Lalit Choudhary). This should serve as the warning to managements. It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion.” He also expressed his dissatisfaction over wage disparities between the permanent and casual workers.
The president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed shock at the comment of the labor minister while others feared that such a position on the part of the government could affect India’s image outside at a time when India was inviting global investors. Infosys CEO, Nandan Nilekani said that whatever have been the circumstances murder cannot be condoned.
Reacting with horror, the Italian Embassy said in a statement that it had repeatedly informed the Indian authorities, both centrally and locally, about workers representatives staging violent protests for the past few months.
It is worthwhile to mention that ‘Graziano Transmissions India’ is an Indian subsidiary of top global auto component manufacturer ‘Graziano Transmissions’ of Italy. Its CEO Lalit Choudhary, 45, was beaten to death on 22nd September’08 by violent workers, who were demanding reinstatement of 11 workers sacked on the ground of under performance.
Meanwhile Noida SSP R.K.Chaturvedi admitted that police reached the spot late and said the station house officer concerned has been placed under suspension (on this count). The police however arrested 136 persons, including 63 on charges of murder and rioting in the incident.