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Sunday, January 16, 2011


The criminal negligence by the management of Modelama Exports (Gurgaon) claimed the life of a migrant worker.



Electrocution due to criminal negligence, took the life of a 30 year old tailor at the Modelama Exports factory at around 2:45 AM on the 15th of January, 2011. Located at # 105, Phase I in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, the factory employs about 4000 workers. The factory had not complied with adequate safety measures listed in various labour laws of the country. Management of Modelama has been invariably violating Indian labour laws as well as  international labour standards. The buyers of Modelama like Gap has also not been very keen to make changes in these dangerous working conditions.

Mr. Raban, was a migrant worker from Samastipur district in Bihar. He is survived by his pregnant wife and 2 young children. The accident happened during the overtime work, when the poorly maintained sewing machine that he was working on, electrocuted him. While such criminal negligence would be unacceptable anywhere else in the world, here in sweatshop Gurgaon, it is the norm. Besides an unsafe working and living environment, even basic amenities for workers are absent and life of workers is cheap in Gurgaon. There is hardly any implementation of safety regulations and labour laws, while greedy factory owners extract more and more from hapless workers.

Workers of Modelama have repeatedly complained to the management about poorly insulated wires, but the management neglected all complaints. Raban's co-workers say that “the management is negligent all the time except during buyers visit. Electric wires are not properly insulated, and this fact has been brought to the notice of the Management but there has been no corrective action taken by them”   They also said that after the electric shock, Mr. Raban fell off the seat and died on the spot. He was taken to Kalyan hospital in Gurgaon by Mr. Akhilesh, Ved Prakash and Mausim(all three supervisors in the shopfloor). Workers were sent back from work after Raban was taken to hospital.

As per the prevalent instructions from the management on Saturday evening, workers reported to duty on Sunday morning. After punching cards and entering the work area, they came to know about Raban’s death. The Management of Modelama Exports refused to give the workers any explanation about their comrade’s death and physically forced them out of the factory and locked the gate.

After being forced out of the factory premises, around 500 workers assembled at the gate of the factory and decided to peacefully sit in at the gate. The goons of the Management approached the peacefully protesting workers and physically assaulted the union leaders and workers in the presence of the local police. Thus we see that there is a clear attempt by the management to terrorise workers by sending its goons. What is even more appalling is that the police also connived with the goon and  lathicharged the peacefully protesting workers.

As per information recieved later during the day, the body of Raban was taken for burial to a distant cemetery located in New Delhi, without being shown to his wife. It was not immediately known whether a post mortem was conducted on the body. There appeared to be political pressure (at the behest of the Management) from a prominent politician from Bihar to 'subdue' the matter. Raban's wife has apparently stated that she would 'abide by what Raban's supervisor says' and did not seem to be keen to follow upon the criminal case of negligence that resulted in the death of her husband. There is a clear indication that the family of the worker has been pressurised, so that the management and owner of Modelama can escape the criminal liability of the death of Raban, due to their negligence and greed.

A criminal case of causing death due to negligence has been filed by the local police under section 304 A of the Indian Penal Code. (Union has still to obtain a copy of the complaint)

Such criminal negligence of the managements in Gurgaon is nothing new. Many workers have sacrificed their lives to satisfy the greed of the factory owners.

As a response to today's criminal incident, the representatives of workers, trade union activists and other like minded people formed the Rabban Justice Committee, with the following demands:-

1) A tripartite enquiry must be conducted to the incident.

2) Hold the management responsible for the criminal negligence and loss of Raban’s life

3) Rabban’s family must be given adequate compensation

4) The management of Modelama must be given exemplary punishment.

5) Forced and excessive overtime work must be stopped immediately.

6) A tripartite mechanism should evolved to monitor the implementation of the labour laws and international labour standards in all units of Modelama