Wistron plant may restart in 15-20 days on Karnataka govt intervention

The Karnataka government which has swung into a damage-control mode after the violence at iPhone maker Wistron Corp plant near Bengaluru, has said that it is working closely with the company management to ensure that the plant is restarted at the earliest and genuine grievances of the workers are addressed.

State Labour Minister A S Hebbar told Business Standard that the plant will be functional again in the next 15-20 days. “There is still no clarity on whether the lapses in payments happened from the contractors’ side or the company’s side. The investigation is still on and will be concluded soon,” said Hebbar.

The state government condemned the violence that took place in the 44-acre factory premises on Saturday morning and assured action against the wrongdoers. So far, around 160 people have been arrested in the matter. “Wistron is a very important project and a flag bearer of India’s ambitions to become a global hub for electronics manufacturing. The state government is committed to its success and business continuity,” it stated.

Wistron India Managing Director Sudipto Gupta earlier said in a letter addressed to the Karnataka government that India is a ‘very important market’ for the company going forward. The company said its management is still in a state of shock and termed the incident as unthinkable.

The Taiwan-headquartered company which had earlier pegged the losses at Rs 437 crore in an FIR, later notified the Taiwan Stock Exchange that the total losses were around Rs 50 crore. On Saturday morning, several thousand people broke window panes, ATM machines, CCTV cameras, vehicles and other equipment at the Wistron campus located in Kolar district around 60 kilometres from Bengaluru on alleged salary deductions and untimely payments of wages. There were allegations of looting of several thousand iphones, laptops and television sets from the premises.

“This could have been done to put a spanner in the Make in India initiative. It could be motivated by the fact that there could be some entities who may not be interested in India picking up momentum in electronics manufacturing,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman at Technopak Advisors.

The All India Trade Union Congress in a letter to the state alleged that there is a false anti-worker narrative being pushed in this matter and workers are being hounded and harassed by the police department. “We believe that central trade unions should also be part of the (investigation) committee in order to represent the workers perspective,” it stated. Business Standard News