Korean Firm MD ‘Assaults’ Tamil Staffer
Combo
videograbs of the managing director of NVH India, Choise Yoon Sik, dragging
away K Bhoopalan, an employee who had plonked before his car as a mark of
passive protest. Sik held Bhoopalan’s legs and dragged him a few feet away and
then stood over him. The video went viral and forced the police to book the
South Korean national
CHENNAI:
The head honcho of a Korean firm was booked on Saturday on charges of
assaulting a worker, a day after he allegedly dragged one of the company’s
employees by his legs. The incident, a video of which was uploaded by the
workers on YouTube, worsened the worker-management conflict in the
Sriperumbudur industrial belt, which is already hit by the recent closure of
Nokia’s cell phone-making plant.
The
incident took place on Friday around 7.45 am on the premises of NVH India Auto,
located at Irungattukottai when a group of workers were protesting against the
suspension of 15 workers. They tried to block the car of managing director
Choise Yoon Sik, a Korean national. Sik was caught on camera dragging one of
the workers sitting before the car, apparently to make way, and shouting at
others.
While
the worker, identified by police as K Boopalan, lay on the ground without
confronting the official, Sik could be heard asking the workers why they were
protesting. “All workers tell me why do you do this? What is the reason? What
is the reason… Move,” Sik said.
The
workers told Express they were merely staging a protest, when the official
behaved in an unruly manner. However, the sequence of incidents prior to this
was not very clear. NVH officials did not to comment on the incident and the
workers’ protest when contacted by Express.
“Fifteen
permanent employees were suspended following our demand to put permanent
employees on the production line and not contracted workers or apprentices. We
were protesting against this when the official manhandled one of the workers,”
said Christopher, an employee of the factory and State-level secretary of
United Labour Front, a trade union.
The
alleged manhandling led to a stronger protest by the workers of the factory and
by various unions on Friday and Saturday. Around 97 workers staging a sit-in
overnight were arrested by the police in the wee hours of Saturday and booked
for unlawful assembly. While all 97 were released on bail later, 28 other union
members, who had launched a hunger fast demanding the arrest of the Sik, were
remanded in judicial custody.
Meanwhile,
the Sriperumbudur police said they have booked Sik on charges of assault, wrongful
restrain and criminal intimidation. “We have registered the case based on the
complaint. Further enquiries are on,” said a senior police officer of the
Kancheepuram police. The police said they have not arrested Sik.
“The
police have not taken any action till now against the official even though we
showed them evidence of his behaviour,” Christopher told Express. Cases have
been registered against a few union members for preventing those who came to
deliver items to the factory.
NVH
India Auto is a subsidiary of Korean components company, NVH Auto, which
supplies sun visors, head liners, floor carpets and other products to Hyundai’s
plant located in the same industrial belt. The company currently has 120
confirmed employees, 500 contact workers and 150 trainees.
Thanks:http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Korean-Firm-MD-%E2%80%98Assaults%E2%80%99-Staffer/2015/01/04/article2602555.ece
