 "Tamil Nadu government to meet Samsung officials in a bid to resolve workers' strike near Chennai")
Tamil Nadu’s labour minister, CV Ganesan, is set to hold talks on Thursday (September 12) with officials of Samsung Electronics. The meeting, set to happen in Chennai, is an effort to resolve a strike that has disrupted operations at the South Korea-based company’s Tamil Nadu consumer electronics plant for four days now.
“The government is sincere to resolve (the strike),” Tamil Nadu’s Labour Secretary K. Veera Raghava Rao told Reuters.
It was not clear which Samsung representatives would attend the meeting. Earlier this week, it had been reported that JB Park, the company’s chief executive for Southwest Asia, had made a visit to Tamil Nadu along with senior officials, seeking to resolve the strike.
Reason for Samsung workers’ strike
The protest by hundreds of workers at Samsung’s Sriperumbudur plant near Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai, is one of India’s biggest incidents of industrial unrest in recent years.
The workers are demanding higher wages, a cut in working hours, equal pay for those with the same level of experience, and recognition of the labour union by Samsung.
The demonstrators, who have been sitting in a makeshift tent put up near the factory, have boycotted work.
A company spokesperson on Monday (September 9) said that Samsung India is actively engaged with workers “to address any grievances they may have and comply with all laws and regulations.”
Samsung’s business hit before festive season
The plant at Sriperumbudur, which employs roughly 1,800 people, makes consumer appliances such as televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. The products made here contribute to roughly 20-30 per cent of Samsung’s annual revenue of $12 billion in India.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe timing of the strike is noteworthy, given that it comes just ahead of the festive season in India which sees consumers stepping up both big-ticket and smaller purchases, especially consumer electronics.
Samsung India is the biggest player in country’s consumer electronics industry.
With inputs from Reuters
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