DECCAN INQUIRER
Weekly e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.01....Issue.30…...........16/12/2020
WISTRON - WHY MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES ARE INVESTING IN INDIA?
We condemn the brutal massacre by police on farmers – who are going to loss all their lands , sources.of livelihood for the sake of special economic zones , industrial parks , etc in various states of India.
In every mega projects undertaken by government , both the state government & central government have functioned like REAL ESTATE / COMMISSION AGENTS for the rich & mighty . the government says it is acquiring lands for development of industries , for public good. In reality there is only good of rich & mighty.
For forming S.E.Zs , corporates gets speedy single window approvals from government , lands at concessional rates – lower than market value , soft loans from Indian banks , tax exemptions for years from the government , dedicated power supply , etc , from the government . these corporates are even given free hand to raise share capital in the Indian market. the government has enacted flexible labour laws specifically for S.E.Zs , they can hire & fire without bothering to pay gratuity , etc and they are exempted from providing P.F / E.S.I coverage to their employees ie they need not worry about the occupational health hazards of their employees , they can employ them till they are fit & throw them on streets afterwards. These corporates take our own money, employ our own people , use our own natural resources & finally take away the net profits to their home countries – what they give back ? – environmental pollution , tax evasions , low paid occupational hazardous jobs to locals , stock market scams .
During Previous License Regime foreign, investment was not directly welcome in India. As people at that time perceived it as "Neo colonisation" & detested it. There were various restrictions on foreign investments. The local industrialists under monopolistic
environment thrived, who were no way better than day light robberers, of course with a few exception. Under the political patronage, the cunning industrialists looted public money, cheated the government of tax, cheated lending banks & cheated the investors
too. They easily flouted labour laws & made labourers to work in inhuman conditions.
During 1990's under the international pressure India signed GATT & slowly started opening it's economy. Now, from 01/01/05 even product patent has come into force in India. Are MNCs bringing high technology intensive industries to India? No, not at all. They are actually denying sophisticated technologies to India. They are only
bringing the FMCG industries - salt, chips, ketch-up, colas, for which India is a huge home market. They are into services like Hotels, medical care, marketing. In other cases, they are just marketing the products manufactured at their bases in U.S.A. or Europe.
They are not bringing in new production technologies in the areas like space research, nuclear energy, bio-technology, pharmaceuticals or pollution control, to India. Also, some MNCs are relocating their highly polluting industries to India, as they are subjected to stringent environmental protection standards in their own home countries. Whereas, In India the Government is highly corrupt & can be bought for a price. The attractive points for foreign direct investment (FDI) in India are,
1. There is lack of comprehensive environmental norms.
2. The enforcement of environmental norms is lax.
3. The cost of health coverage, social security net to be provided to the workers exposed to the occupational hazards is less.
4. The cost of compensation to be paid to the persons-who died or suffered damages due to occupational hazards/environmental pollution is meager.
5. The enforcement of labour laws are lax.
6. Public money can be easily raised through lending Banks, primary market within India & the public can be easily cheated.
7. The tax can be evaded through various loopholes like transferring money to holding companies situated at Mauritius or countries which have double taxation avoidance agreement with India.
8. The tax can be evaded, company money can be cheated by lending money to sister / holding concerns at low interest rates or by selling shares, materials to their private companies at low rates or by buying shares, materials from their holding/sister concerns at exhorbitant rates, etc.
9. The corporate governance laws are almost absent in India & it's enforcement nil.
10. Above all, the time can be bought by very slow Indian legal system, if any dispute arise.
11. On top of it, well trained, technically qualified people are available at low rates through contractors.
Just consider the following cases which highlight the apathy, irresponsibility of government of India and emboldened the cunning, MNCs:-
1. The India which boasts of so much scientific/technological advancements, is till date has been unable to provide potable water to it's people. People of west Bengal , Karnataka , Andrapradesh states are forced to drink Arsenic, Fluoride poisoned water.
2. The people living near the mines of R.E.M.P. in Kerala are suffering due to exposure to the radio active materials, Same is the case with the people of Jadaguda, Jharkhand, living near the U.C.I.L. plant. Both M/S R.E.M.P & M/s U.C.I.L are department of atomic energy enterprises.
3. Few years back, In Mysore railway station containers of radio- active materials were left unattended. The dome of reactor building at construction stage collapsed in nuclear power plant at Kaiga. A fire tragedy occurred in Kakrapar nuclear power plant. In the recent Tsunami waves onslaught, certain important facilities of Koodakulam atomic plant were damaged near Chennai.
4. In 1984, U.S. based MNC union carbide mass murdered nearly 20,000 people, injured lakhs who are still suffering health problems. The polluted poisonous accident site i.e. Union carbide plant in Bhopal is not yet cleared off toxic materials even after 20 years.
This is still further damaging the residents of Bhopal.
5. In the above union carbide disaster, the Government of India didn't present the case properly before supreme courts of India & U.S.A.. As a result the MNC just paid a pittance as compensation. As per that the cost of Indian lives are just a fraction of cost of
American lives. Just imagine if a same disaster occurred in U.S.A. at the plant of a MNC headquartered in India, what would have been the consequence?
6. In India, hazardous chemicals laced with food additives are passed through the drinks, beverages like pepsi, cola, coco cola very easily.
7. The medicines like nimesulide, paracetamol, etc. with hazardous side effects which are banned in U.S.A.& Europe, are easily marketed by the same U.S.& Europe based MNCs in India.
8. In India spurious drugs, medicines, food stuffs are easily marketed.
9. In India, the clinical trials of new medicines under research are done without proper compensation structure to those being tried upon ie. Virtual guinea pigs.
10. In India, the genetically engineered BT crops are being introduced without paying attention to formers, ecology or eco-system.
11. In India, during setting up of large projects, scant attention is paid to environment, eco-system & the displaced persons.
Most of the times, in government projects itself the displaced persons are cheated by the government in numerous ways.
12. In India, various Government as well as private hospitals dumps hospital wastes with deadly viruses in the open, with scant regard to public health.
13. In India, aged ships belonging to foreign countries are breaked down to scrap in ship breaking yards of Gujarath , Maharashtra & AP. Various toxins like the Asbestos, lead, etc & the hazardous, dirty water, Oil inside the ship are drained into Indian seashore. The labourers here are forced to work without any safety gears.
14. When specific cases of human rights violations were brought before the government & Judiciary by us , both of them didn't respond at all.
All the above cases highlight the fact that, government of India & Indian judiciary treats it's citizens lives as cheap, dispensable at will. This is the major attracting force for MNCs to India.
Karnataka Labour Dept finds Wistron did not record deduction in pay for workers
TNM accessed the Labour Department’s inspection report of Wistron’s manufactory in Kolar and found several violations of labour laws.
Contract employees at Wistron’s iPhone manufacturing unit in Karnataka’s Kolar were not given offer letters, employment contracts and were denied salary slips on request, the Karnataka Labour Department has found. “When asked to produce, the (company) did not,” the report says. The inspectors also found that contract employees were not given offer letters, employment contracts and were denied salary slips on request. The report indicates that contracting companies including Quess Corp, Adecco India Ltd and Creative Engineers violated norms related to hiring personnel. However, it does not specify whether the other violations it noted were incurred by Wistron or the contracting companies.
The Karnataka Labour Department visited the plant on December 12, the day thousands of disgruntled workers vandalised the factory, alleging that their repeated requests to pay deducted wages and overtime amounts were stonewalled. The Labour Department found several violations of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 and the state government’s rules pertaining to this legislation. The inspection was conducted by Kolar district’s inspectors working in the Labour Department -- Lokesh Kumar and Renuka Prasad.
Sources with the Labour Department told TNM that a report including the inspection’s findings were sent to the Union Labour Ministry. “We don’t know what action the Union government will want us to take. In such a situation, the contracting companies could be blacklisted,” a senior official with the Labour Department said.
The Labour Department official also said that its “findings” based on multiple inspections and interactions with company representatives indicate violations by the contracting companies.
What the report states
The report, signed by Rajeshwari, the Labour Officer in Kolar district Labour Office, noted that contractors including Quess Corp Ltd, Adecco India Ltd and Creative Engineers had hired more people without prior approval of the labour department. “Contracting companies Creative Engineers and Quess Corp Ltd, had obtained permission to hire 2,350 and 1,350 employees for Wistron. They hired 2,410 and 1,511 personnel in total and had not obtained permission to hire the additional employees. Adecco India Ltd had obtained permission to hire 3,000 employees but they hired 111 additional personnel without prior approvals,” the report added.
However, the most important finding was that the workers salaries were deducted, which was in violation of the Contract Employees (Regulation and Abolition) Rules. According to the rules, salaries can be deducted if there is a record of employees taking unpaid leave, or if it is proved that any damages were caused to the company’s infrastructure due to the said employees’ action. “No explanation was given regarding the deduction in pay,” the report noted.
TNM spoke to several employees who stated that every month three or four days’ pay was deducted despite them having worked those days and that this had gone on for over six months. Employees said that despite multiple requests submitted to Wistron’s to the HR Department, no action was taken to rectify the deduction in pay.
An earlier report submitted by the Department of Factories, Boilers and Industrial Safety, had stated that overtime wages for the housekeeping staff were not paid. The report also stated that the company violated section 8 of the Minimum Wages Act where complaints of employees were not officially recorded.
The report also found that the company had violated norms under the Industrial Employees (Standing Order) Act 1976, where the management’s decisions were not effectively communicated with the employees. However, this report does not specifically state whether these violations were incurred by Wistron specifically or the contracting companies.
What the human resource contracting companies claimed
A source at Quess Corp told TNM on condition of anonymity that Wistron hasn’t been able to meet with the increased workload coming its way, especially after the lockdown ensuing the pandemic. “They went up from 2,000 employees to nearly 10,000. The unprecedented increase in workforce in a rather abnormal pandemic situation impeded their ability to put systems that would have enabled them to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities,” the source said.
He also said that Wistron had failed to maintain a good relationship with its workers. “If there is an issue at the plant, they should have been able to call somebody, there should have been community connect that they generated like someone to mediate between bureaucracy and legal resources. Hence there was a rampage. And that’s where I think the focus should be as you analyse this issue,” the source added.
Industry sources also say that service providers such as Quess Corp, which is a listed company, are expected to follow the same level of governance as a Wistron or Apple is, and as service providers, they will also begin looking at clients keenly and whether or not they want to work with them and under what circumstances.
Responding to TNM, another contracting company, Randstad India said that it strictly abides by the law of the land and that it has a zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance.
“We are working with Wistron Corp to identify the root cause of the problem. As a responsible organization committed to the welfare of our staff, we believe in upholding our values of fair employment practices and pay structure. At this juncture, we are committed to do everything that is necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees deputed to Wistron and will continue to work with the authorities,” Paul Dupuis, MD and CEO, Randstad India said.
Is Wistron accountable?
Employees that TNM spoke to said that when they approached Wistron’s HR Department, they were informed that the company had handed over wages to the contracting companies. When employees approached the contracting companies, they were informed that payments disbursed by Wistron were made and that the contracting companies only disbursed the money received from Wistron, the principal company.
Speaking to TNM, Professor Matthew Babu, adjunct professor at National Law School India University in Bengaluru and Director of Centre for Labour Studies, said that both the contracting companies and the principal company, in this case Wistron, are accountable to ensure that labour laws are not violated.
“The principal employer should ensure that the wages are paid properly and it should appoint personnel to monitor whether contracting companies are also following these norms. They can’t escape so easily. First of all they get labour at cheapest price and don’t pay minimum wage and overtime, which is a violation of the Minimum Wages Act,” he said.
He said that such lack of monitoring would be counterproductive to increasing investment in Karnataka as employers would prefer to work in states where such systems are in place and function properly. “It is the job of the principal company to ensure that all contract employees are registered and should ensure that management’s decisions are communicated properly. This seems like a blame game,” he added.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN INDIA
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Scandals related to the appalling practices of multinational corporations like Union Carbide (now DOW), Enron, Coke, Cadbury, and
others may have shocked the nation and the world in the recent past, but the media rarely highlights corporate crimes that extend to murders, destroying habitats, threatening indigenous cultures, causing disease, contaminating the planet's food supply, poisoning
our groundwater and even destroying the very air we breathe.
You think this is an exaggeration? Well consider this. In Bhopal, India more than 8,000 people died in the first three days after 40 tonnes of lethal gas spilled out from Union Carbide's pesticide factory in December 1984. People woke in their homes to fits of coughing, their lungs filling with fluid. 520,000 people were exposed to poisonous gases. 150,000 victims are chronically ill, and even now one person dies every two days. Union Carbide merged with Dow Chemical Corporation two years ago and has ceased to exist as an entity while the present owners Dow refuse to accept any pending liabilities in Bhopal including clean-up of the abandoned site.
In Kodaikanal, India, Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of Unilever Plc, an Anglo-Dutch multinational dumped mercury waste from its thermometer factory in the surrounding forests and on an innocent local community. When the scandal was exposed, first the company denied that there was a problem and later fudged facts and figures until the Indian authorities forced them to come clean. Since then Unilever has retrieved and sent back to USA some of the waste for disposal but are shying away from compensating affected workers and further environmental remediation measures.
Monsanto, one of the world's largest pesticide companies, continues to sell its genetically engineered seeds to farmers around the world despite growing evidence of failure of crops like Bt cotton, that has reduced once well-to-do farmers in the developing world to penury and poverty while the threat of contamination of indigenous species by GE
seeds increases everyday.
Bayer AG, a German transnational continues to manufacture and sell phased out pesticides like Methyl Parathion (brand name Folidol/Metacid) in Asia despite an assurance to their European investors and stake holders that they would stop manufacturing these organo-phosphate poisons.
Ship-owning companies (and indeed, their countries) like Bergesen (Norway), and Chandris (Greece) meanwhile, regularly violate international and national laws and dump their hazardous wastes at ship-breaking yards in India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and Bangladesh. The voluntary guidelines issued by International Marine Organisation
are not enough and it is imperative that these guidelines are made mandatory to make the ship-owners liable and responsible.
In the era of globalization, multinational companies increasingly move around assets, products and wastes on a global chessboard to maximize their profits and minimize their costs. These companies are using differences and loopholes in national environmental and health laws for example to export pesticides and destructive technologies to
poorer countries to the detriment of local communities. What international body oversees them, or sets rules for their behaviour, or holds them accountable when they transgress?
It is no longer just the conspiracy theorists who believe our world is increasingly ruled and ruined by large multinational corporations. The World Trade Organisation has supplanted environmental treaties and regulations. Corporations have become accountable only under the rules of a free market, free trade and a free for all on human rights and the environment.
The state of our environment has not improved, in fact it has deteriorated. The gap between the world's rich and poor has widened. Instead of providing developing countries with the tools for sustainable development, corporations have pushed their dirty
technologies and polluting industries on to some of the world's poorest countries.
A recent UN report revealed that Exxon, with $63 billion, is worth more than Peru or New Zealand. General Electric more than Kuwait. Shell is worth more than Morocco or Cuba.
In the past ten years, corporations have not only resisted
environmental challenges, they have lobbied to water down
international treaties and even succeeded in getting countries to
pull out of environmental agreements altogether. They have maintained
their unsustainable practices in all sectors. It is apparent that
more than just voluntary measures are needed to control these
corporations.
A recent report by WWF states that if we continue at current levels
of consumption we will use up all of the Earth's resources within 50
years, and we will need two more planets to meet our resource needs.
We either take urgent action to save the planet, or we get off.
The UN Environmental Programme agrees that "the state of the planet
is getting worse." They say "there is a growing gap between the
efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the
environment and the worsening state of the planet."
At the root of our environmental problems are the unsustainable
practices of the corporations that shape our economies. But what is
the good of a short-term healthy economy if we can't drink the water,
eat the foods in the fields or breathe the air?
Current systems of governance in Asia (as elsewhere) are proving to
be deficient against the activities of abusive multinational
corporations. To roll back the excessive powers of corporations and
to pressure governments to check corporate abuse and prosecute
corporate crimes, greater public participation is a must. The Rainbow
Warrior's Corporate Accountability Tour of India is part of a global
movement to change the climate of opinion against abusive
corporations and to turn the tide in favour of fundamental human
rights.
Corporations need to be held accountable for their actions that are
destroying the planet, destroying people's lives around the globe.
There is only one answer. We must stand up to the corporations. Our
governments must agree on international, legally binding rules for
corporate responsibility, accountability and liability: a set of
rules that business must follow, and governments must enforce.
The list of rules is long, but so are the crimes.
The world needs corporations to be held accountable to the following
laws – no matter where they operate in the world. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
is calling upon the Indian Government to endorse the Bhopal
Principles on Corporate Responsibility, which call on Multinational
Corporations to:
• Accept liability for environmental damage and compensate victims of
pollution;
• Accept liability for the damage, no matter when it happens, what
the cause or who in the corporation is responsible;
• Accept responsibility for damage and injury beyond national borders
including accidents in the oceans and atmosphere;
• Ensure that they do not infringe upon basic human rights;
• Disclose all information regarding releases into the environment to
the public;
• Protect human and social rights including the highest standards for
rights to health care and a clean environment;
• Avoid influence over governments, combat bribery and practice
transparency;
• Allow states to maintain their sovereignty over their own food
supply;
• Implement a precautionary principle and take preventative action
before environmental damages or health effects are incurred; and
• Promote and practice clean and sustainable development
Editorial : CORPORATE CRIMINALS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ILLS IN INDIA
In India , a small shop owner to big industrialist have mastered the art of TAX EVASION . their teachers - some corrupt tax officials & auditors. The black money thus created
is causing inflation, feeding the mafia , underworld. Some industrialists lobby ( bribe ) with the government & gets favourable laws enacted. This black money is the main source of funds for political parties , religious bodies & terrorist outfits.
The recent raids by C.B.I & KARNATAKA LOKAYUKTHA have proved how the tax officials have become multi-millionaires. The sad part is that some of the police officials who are on deputation to C.B.I & LOKAYUKTHA themselves are utterly corrupt.
This scourge can only be cured by corporate accountability intoto. However , all the industrialists , traders who are demanding for more flexible labour reforms , economic reforms , infrastructure , etc are not at all concerned about their own accountability with respect to tax , environment , other laws. The MNCs coming to India are not coming here for best Indian talents or infrastructure alone. In their own countries they are feeling the
heat of strict environment laws , consumer laws , share holder disclosures , corporate accountability. Some of these MNCs are being kicked out of their countries , by it's own people .These MNCs are aware that in India , by greasing the palms environment laws , labour laws , tax laws , etc everything can be flouted , cases in courts can be dragged on for years . share holder disclosures , corporate transparency is minimum.
However when a concerned citizen complains about the crimes of guilty corporates , organizations or corrupt public servants , immediate action is not taken. The file is kept pending for months , years together , allowing the criminals to manipulate all the evidences , records , ground situations. Finally even if action is taken guilty will be let out due to favorable evidences , there are chances that the concerned citizen himself is falsely implicated & put behind bars . in all such cases all the involved parties must be subjected to lie detector tests .
Bottomline : development is a must , it must be all around . but not at the cost of majority to make a few richer.
Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.
Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,
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