Chennai: A top official of a Korean auto ancillary firm has been booked under Indian law for allegdly manhandling one of his employees on the factory premises at Irungattukottai on Friday while 26 workers of the company have been arrested and remanded in custody for indulging in violent behaviour on the premises. The Sriperumbudur police has booked a case against the Korean national, Choyce Yoon Isk, MD of NVH India Auto Ltd, for allegedly manhandling one of his staff, Bhoopalan, during work hours inside the factory.
A video showing the MD dragging the employee out of the factory premises had gone viral, creating a flutter among viewers. “We were protesting about employing contract labourers to do our (permanent) job when the MD suddenly came from inside and started dragging our colleague,” said K. Prabhu Kumar, another company staffer and joint secretary of the company’s union, United Labour Federation.
"The company has been illegally trying to dismiss at least 100 permanent employees and fill the posts with contract labourers as they can hire them cheaper," he said.
NVH India Auto, a subsidiary of Korean components company NVH Auto, supplies sun visors, headliners, floor carpets and other car parts. The company has 115 confirmed employees, 500 contact workers and 150 trainees.
However, the tussle between the work force and the management took an ugly turn when around 100 protesting workers, including four women, were taken into custody early Saturday morning during a sit-in strike inside the company’s factory. According to D. Christopher, secretary of ULF, the arrested workers were kept in two wedding halls at Sriperumbudur and at Shankar Kalyana Mandapam at Sunguvarchathiram, close to the plant, till late Saturday noon without any water or food.
The Kancheepuram police said 94 workers were taken into custody as a preventive measure early Saturday morning as they were trying to restrict movement of goods from the factory. However, barring 26 of them, the rest of them have been let off, they said. "We have arrested around 26 persons who indulged in violent behaviour and have remanded them in judicial custody.
They have been remanded under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly) and 188 (disobedience of an order from a public servant). Other employees who were detained in a wedding hall were released later in the day. An assault case has been booked against the Korean MD for assault. He is yet to be arrested," said Kancheepuram SP C. Vijaya Kumar. Though NVH India officials refused comment, another source inside the factory claimed that the MD was not assaulting the worker but merely trying to move the worker away from the line of the loading vehicle set to leave the premises.
