Frontline has published a story on October 31, 2026 titled “Surat textile workers fired and blacklisted for demanding a weekly day off” And congratulations to Frontline team for publishing a well-documented story of exploitation, misery and poverty. And Government apathy.

The irony is that it tells us nothing new. I have published several stories of exploitation and contemptuous violation of labour laws. The exploitation of migrant workers in Gujarat is to be seen to be believed. Why speak of Gujarat, it is everywhere, in all the states of India.

Surat and nearby towns have many industries. Silvassa is one, for example, where predominantly migrant workers work. They come from Odisha, UP, and Bihar. It is public knowledge that the workers’ salary is negotiated (read decided) for 12-hour day. If Minimum wage is say, Rs 10,000 pm (which is for eight hours of work every day with a weekly off) they are paid 15000 pm for a 12-hour shift. If you work four hours overtime you should earn Rs 20,000 pm but that’s not the deal.

Exploitation begins here. Workers coming from various States have just one objective – earn as much as one can. They accept such a condition because getting salary itself is a big thing for them! They come from the States where they face abject poverty.

This also results in perverse behaviour. If an enlightened employer offers eight-hour work (meaning they will be paid Rs 10,000 pm as given in the example above), they go to nearby factory and work extra four hours and get Rs 15000 the end of the month! The object is to earn as much as you can!!

Everyone criticizes the greedy employers. And rightly so. We are quite familiar with how the wealth of employers produces exploitative behaviour. What we miss out is that poverty of the migrant workers makes them a willing and consenting party to exploitative actions.

Gujarat has boldly promoted exploitation for decades. That is their interpretation of creating ‘business friendly’ climate. The problem is that this disease has spread elsewhere too. The exploitation virus has mutated to take various forms.

In Pune for example, the contract workers are paid minimum wages. The workers opt for 90 to 100 hours overtime so that they can get reasonable wage in hand. There is no leave allowed. Attendance bonus is usually Rs 2500 to Rs 3000 per month, but even if one remains absent for one day it is completely deducted from wages. And they count attendance bonus as part of wages which may not be wrong, but the wage structure is so loaded against the workers. It prevents them from availing one day leave, actually punishes them if they availed one day leave!

There are organizations, some of them MNCs, in Pune which ensure that a given worker is never re-employed in the factory by the contractor!

I have already detailed how finding a bride is becoming impossible for contract workers. And contract workers with other contingent workers like trainees, form 90-95% of the total workforce.

These examples are not exceptions, they are the rule. We have effectively reversed the benefits trade unions have secured from employers. The situation is fast regressing to the nineteenth century industrial scenario.

Spread of contract workers, contingent workers like temporaries, apprentices, trainees, is one factor, and proliferation of manpower supply organizations like Teamlease is another. The words like ‘work-integrated learning, degree apprenticeships, and skilling partnerships’ are invented for devious schemes which lead to exploitation.

The Government machinery has stopped inspecting the implementation of labour laws. The most glaring example was provided by Wistron violence case. They were making iPhones for Apple. After the violence Apple put Wistron ‘On Probation,’ meaning if they did not comply with labour laws they would lose business. Wistron reportedly complied with the laws and regulations. So we need Apple to implement our labour laws!

The employers who trumpet ‘values’ turn a blind eye to exploitative policies. One reason is that they do not declare any IR policy, if they did, their managers will be held accountable!

There are several cases where global agreements signed between MNCs and unions like UNI Global Union are not honoured in India.

UNI Global Union has published a report ‘On Duty & Unprotected: How G4S Security Guards in India Are Denied Contracts, Overtime Pay and the Right to Unionize.’ I will quote a paragraph from their report:

“Between April and August 2026, 104 G4S security guards were interviewed across nine cities in four North Indian states (Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat), through a mix of face-to-face, group and remote interviews. The findings point to a consistent pattern of labour and human rights violations that recur across every city, worksite type and interview method covered by this study” …..

SIX ISSUES WERE RAISED REPEATEDLY BY WORKERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE SAMPLE: 1. Excessive overtime without pay, 2. No access to written contracts, 3. Long hours standing with inadequate rest breaks, 4. Unprotected exposure to adverse weather and unsafe air, 5. Unlawful wage deductions for leave, and 6. Pervasive fear at work; suppression of unionization”

G4S is a global security and facility services company. G4S provides physical and electronic security solutions to businesses, governments, and critical infrastructure across more than 90 countries.

The Unions are not without their share of blame. They serve the permanent workers and fail to represent the interests of the contingent workforce.

The trade union leaders who had political links have moved to greener pastures – some say they are ‘helping’ real estate builders. That is where the money is. Today the number of MPs with clear Trade Union background has shrunk to an all-time low of just eight! India has a total of 788 Members of Parliament (MPs) across both houses of the Indian Parliament. Who then takes care of workers’ interests at the national level?

The situation is alarming. Opportunistic employers, lack of principled trade union leaders and a Government which does not implement its labour laws is a deadly combination.

What will be impact on the society of this deteriorating and exploitative industrial relations situation? You decide!

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All matter copyrighted.

“तुम्ही जो वारसा मागे ठेवून जाता, तो म्हणजे दगडी स्मारकांवर कोरलेले शब्द नव्हे; तर तो वारसा म्हणजे इतरांनी आयुष्य विणताना विणले गेलेले तुमचे धागे होत.” सर्व मजकूर कॉपीराइट-संरक्षित आहे.