India’s Uttar Pradesh state raises workers’ wages amid protests over pay
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Protesters chanting after workers demanded higher pay in India’s Noida – a suburb that houses industrial units, including that of Samsung Electronics – on April 13.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NOIDA, India – India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh has raised workers’ minimum wages following days of protests in an industrial hub, government sources said, becoming the second state to do so in less than a week amid rising costs fanned by the Iran war.
Protesters in Noida – a suburb of the national capital that houses industrial units, including that of South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics – had torched vehicles and pelted stones on April 13 as they demanded higher pay, with the police lobbing tear gas shells to quell the demonstrations.
Similar protests in the state of Haryana, an auto-making hub, last week also led to its government ordering a 35 per cent hike in minimum wages.
The protests come at a time when living costs worldwide have risen as the US-Israeli war with Iran has curbed fuel supplies.
Around 40,000 workers were part of the Noida protest, according to the Gautam Buddh Nagar police, which has lodged seven criminal cases related to the demonstrations. More than 300 people have been arrested, a police spokesperson told Reuters.
The wage hike ordered this week will be applicable retrospectively from April 1, and will increase the pay of unskilled workers in Noida to US$147 (S$187) per month from the current monthly pay of US$121, government sources said.
Wages for semi-skilled and skilled workers have similarly been increased, the sources said, adding that different increases have also been made in other parts of the state.
The government of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Discontent simmers
Ms Sheetal Dixit, who works at an automobile company in Noida, said workers had heard about the revised minimum wages, but termed them “unfair”.
“We are not happy with the increased wages,” she told Reuters.
Many manufacturing units in Noida remained closed on April 14 as protests persisted in some places, with people marching on the roads and chanting slogans under heavy police deployment, and stones also being pelted at a police vehicle in one instance.
Reuters visuals showed police personnel in anti-riot gear attempting to disperse dozens of protesters on a street.
Other images showed charred and overturned vehicles still on the roads, underscoring the violence and arson that happened a day earlier. REUTERS
