After approaching the authorities numerous times and making little headway in securing their jobs, employees of Nokia India’s Chennai facility are taking the social media route to draw attention to their problems.
Employees at the facility, which has been left out of the Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services unit due to tax issues, are worried that they will soon lose their jobs.
As a first, the union representing the 7,000-plus employees has released a 35-minute film on video streaming site YouTube. Titled ‘Disconnecting People’, the film begins with the assembling of parts to create a basic Nokia phone followed by the Nokia signature tune. As the tune plays, it shows Nokia’s logo of two hands joining with the tag line ‘Connecting People’.
“In this whole thing, all people know is that there is a tax problem. The idea is to bring out the human element where workers are talking about what this job means to them,” said Madhu Dutta, a researcher on labour issues and special economic zones.
Dutta has been helping and supporting the wokers’ union. The union is also planning to use other social media networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message. Nokia India is involved in two legal cases — one with the Tamil Nadu taxmen and another a Rs 21,000-crore issue on royalties paid to its parent in Finland.
Early this week, the Madras High Court had asked the state government to look into the matter afresh and directed Nokia India to deposit Rs 240 crore within eight weeks. Now, the Chennai facility is operating as a contract manufacturer for Microsoft and Nokia India has offered a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to its employees.
The union has rejected the offer saying they want an assurance of their jobs but sources say around 100 employees have accepted it so far. The film released on YouTube on Thursday, the International Workers’ Day, had over 400 views. In the movie, A Soundararajan, honorary president of the union and General Secretary of CITU Tamil Nadu, has alleged that foreign companies come to India to set up factories and enjoy all the concessions in the initial years.
G Udayakumar, advisor to Nokia India Employees’ Union, said the employees wanted the government to take notice. “We want to tell everyone that if the government gives concessions to companies by promising to give employment to people, then they should maintain that.”
Nokia India’s factory employed nearly 7,000 workers until recently, of which over 700 trainee operators have exited the company along with a few other technicians and permanent employees. The exact number could not be ascertained. “We hope that through this film, we are able to reach out to the consumers worldwide and tell them about the lives behind the (Nokia) phones which have remained muted so far,” said Dutta.
