The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Another garment factory worker commits suicide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Another garment factory worker commits suicide

Karnataka Bureau

Union workers allege workplace harassment

Renuka killed herself at her residence in Peenya on October 12
Union demands an immediate inquiry by the Labour Department

Bangalore: In the third reported unnatural death of a garment factory worker since September this year, 18-year-old Renuka killed herself at her residence in Peenya on October 12, following alleged harassment at her workplace by her superiors.

According to garment workers’ union representatives, Renuka was berated by the general manager and manager of the factory unit in Goruguntepalya. She was made to stand near the security cabin at the workplace for half the shift, with no work to do. She was told to leave the factory premises in the afternoon, they alleged.

At about 3 p.m. she left the factory and went home and hanged herself. Her mother, also a garment worker, came home in the evening to find her daughter dead. A case has been registered with the Rajagopalnagar police station.

Other deaths

The union representatives pointed out that Padmavathi, a 39-year-old worker, had collapsed and died last month near the apparel factory in Timber Yard Layout where she worked. She was allegedly kept waiting for leave to visit a doctor. In February, 27-year-old Ammu committed suicide within the factory premises run by the same management that employed Renuka.

The union representatives added that in March this year, Ratnamma, a pregnant worker, lost her baby she delivered on a street near her factory in Timber Yard Layout after her request for leave was not granted immediately. In April, Jagadish, a garment worker in the Yeshwantpur industrial area, was attacked by a supervisor with acid.

These cases, the union representatives said, pointed to “the continuing practice in the garment industry of squeezing out higher productivity through harassment of workers”. They alleged that factories routinely set “unrealistic targets and force workers to work well beyond their mandated eight hours, without any time for breaks during the workday, often without overtime payments”. Any attempt at resistance, they said, was met with harassment, verbal and physical abuse, and arbitrary dismissal.

There were no representative shop floor works committees of workers as mandated by law, they said.

The Garment and Textile Workers Union has demanded an immediate investigation by the Labour Department into the reasons for Renuka committing suicide and the formation of a high-level committee of the Government to investigate the plight of workers in factories in the garment sector.

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