This guest post has been sent to us by RAMAPRIYA GOPALAKRISHNAN. She is a lawyer practising in the Madras High Court working on labour rights, environmental and human rights issues. She is one of the two lawyers who appeared for the MRF United Workers’ Union before the Madras High Court.

The MRF United Workers’ Union case – Ruling of the Madras High Court on the recognition of trade unions

The workers in the Arakonam factory of MRF Limited, a tyre major, ended their 125 day old strike on September 14, 2009 and resumed work following the pronouncement of the much awaited verdict in the case filed by the MRF United Workers’ Union before the Madras High Court concerning the recognition of the union by the management of the company.

The Arakonam factory of MRF Limited in Vellore District in Tamil Nadu is the largest of the six tyre manufacturing factories of the company.  The workers in the factory are paid piece rate wages with no transparency in the process. They do not have any information on what constitutes a ‘piece’ and the rate at which they will be paid for the ‘piece.’ Moreover, the number of ‘contract workers’ engaged in the factory for direct production work is more than twice the number of direct confirmed workers engaged for doing the same work. These facts by itself would indicate the status of labour law compliance in the factory. There was thus a long felt need among the workers for an independent and effective trade union to protect their interests.

Continue reading MRF United Workers’ Union Case: Ramapriya Gopalakrishnan →