Jaipuria institute of management

Industrial relations assignment work

Topic: Murder of CEO of Graziano Company And

involved Issues

Submitted to:
Submitted By:

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Pro. Athar Mahmood Pavitra kumar

(JIML-09-103)
 The reports do not provide similar kind of
information and facts about the murder of LK
Chaudhary the CEO of Graziano Company

One is from the perspective of Employer and

other perspective of Employee:

From the perspective of Management

Lalit Chaudhary, the CEO of Italian company Graziano, was allegedly beaten to
death by agitating workers who were dismissed a month ago. A day after the shocking
incident, questions are being raised about security in an area that’s becoming the
country's crime zone. Just six armed policemen were posted at the factory when the
trouble started and reports have it the private securitymen at the plant had locked
themselves inside.

Choudhary was allegedly attacked and beaten to death by a furious mob of workers who
were fired two months ago and were protesting against their dismissal. The company was
working at a solution when the situation went out of control, employees have other
complaints. “I called the police but they came after 45 minutes. Even when inspector
came, there were only five constables,” says an employee. SSP Noida RK Chaturvedi
told CNN-IBN the SHO had been suspended. Over 125 people have been arrested. They
had charged 63 people with rioting and murder.

The management of Oerlinkon Graziano has issued a statement on Choudhry's

death, terming it a criminal action. The statement says the police reached the spot only
after the trouble-makers fled. Oerlikon Graziano's CEO Marcello Lamberto, in an official
statement released by the company from Italy, said, "This is by no means a regular
labour conflict but is truly criminal action. They obtained court order that the striking
employees should stay beyond 300 m away from the factory."

From the perspective of Employees:

Lalit Kishore Chaudhary was the CEO of Graziano Company in Udyog Vihar of
Greater Noida. The company was a gear box manufacturer.
Here we provide the facts as provided by the workers themselves, which shows that
the workers were not responsible. They were being blamed as a tactic to break the
workers’ struggle. They need the support and solidarity of workers of all countries.

Soon after Monday, 22nd September the news that Lalit Kishore Choudhary, CEO (chief
executive officer) and India-head of the multinational Orlion Graziano Trasmissioni, had
been killed by furious workers spread throughout the Indian media. All this happened
during a meeting which was decisive for the fate of nearly 300 locked-out and 15
dismissed workers.

The whole story of what had happened came out quite a few days later: For the very
same day goons were hired by the management to repress the workers by violent
means. There was a gunshot of a “security guard” which created panic. As the situation
escalated Choudhary was killed, and two other senior managers and at least 10 workers
were hurt. The police came to arrest 136 of the workers, 63 were charged with murder
and 73 with breach of the peace; 81 were in jail. On Friday, 17th October the trial started
for those who were claimed to be responsible for the death of Choudhary.

So far not a single manager has been imprisoned, in spite of the fact that the workers
were physically threatened with arms and even beaten up even for small reasons on
a regular base, and they were threatening them with dismissal. Completely ignoring
any legal standards or considering the workers’ rights was common practice at
Graziano. CCTV cameras were installed at the workplace preventing them from taking
even a moment of rest and fans were switched off which lead to terrible heat in the
hall. Overtime work – twelve hours a day, seven days a week – was made
compulsory. In May there was a complaint to the police against the workers for
disturbances caused by the local muscleman of the contractor.

The employers and local authorities were working hand in hand – and the workers were
asked to pay 100,000 Rs., a huge amount of money, as bail. Regular workers were
sacked and contract workers were employed in their place. The bosses were simply
seeking to employ workers with no rights who could be paid less and who were in deep
need of some form of income – most of the workers come from very far to find a job in
one of the SEZs on the outskirts of Delhi.

Assuming that the employment of local workers may be more problematic, while the
workers from other states would remain without support and thus find it difficult to
organise, the employers at Graziano used to employ workers mostly from the Eastern
parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar. Local people were employed only as
musclemen and contractors to confront and hold back the workers from putting up
resistance. According to the company, only 150 of the 650 were contract workers; the
workers have explained that in the past three months 400 of them were working on
contract.

The conflict at Graziano had been going on since December 2007, when the workers first
came up with the demand of higher wages. The second main issue was the unionization
of the plant which the registrar of unions refused them thrice. This summer the
management started to lock out workers from the factory after they tried to defend
their rights by the means of strike action.

Management finally agreed to take back all the locked out contract workers (except for
those 15 who had played a key role in the struggle) under one condition: each of them
was to sign an individual apology and an undertaking letter to maintain discipline and
productivity, i.e. not to wage any strikes. The deadline to sign or to accept dismissal was
the fateful day of 22nd September. Some were about to sign while some others wanted to
refuse. One of the workers, Avdesh, was quoted in The Hindustan Times: “The
Company asked us to write an apology letter saying we had caused violence in the past
which forced the lockout. This made me furious and the gathered workers started
protesting. However, we did not kill the CEO.” Other workers have been reporting that
they went into the office in twos and there were goons inside, beating a man who did not
want to apologize.”

To support these workers, the Graziano Workers' Solidarity Forum was set up by
twelve labour organizations and individuals on 28th September in Delhi. Two workers’
delegates were present at the meeting.

The Forum had set up a fact-finding team; it provides the workers with legal and
financial aid. Last but not least it spreads the truth about the case amongst workers and
the wider public. On Monday, 13th September, the text of a leaflet which is to be
distributed in Hindi and in English was democratically discussed. For the printing of
8000 copies every organisation present gave Rs. 200, and for its distribution each of them
provided between 3 and 25 people. On Thursday, 16th October an impressive
demonstration took place on Jantar Manter, the road where all the political assemblies in
Delhi take place. 120-130 people took part. The Forum put forward a red transparent
saying “Workers of the world unite!” Finally two full sheets of signatures were given to
the minister of labour as a sign of protest – with every signature being from a
representative of a political group in solidarity with the Graziano workers.

We support the demands of the Forum which are the following:

1. The Managements of Industry be barred by law from raising private armies of

goondas, under the garb of security.
2. All the more than 50 workers who had suffered injuries at the hands of
goondas/security of the Management should be adequately compensated for with
Rs. Two Lakh each.
3. The Factory Managers who perpetuated the violence be immediately arrested.
4. All 136 arrested workers be released forthwith.
5. Action be taken against the Labour and other authorities who in connivance with
management of Graziano failed to take timely action in the matter.
6. A jury of citizens, with workers’ representatives be formed to investigate and hear
the case of the Graziano workers.
 7. The families of the workers be compensated for harassment and exploitation of
the workers, suffered at the hands of managers and police.

The involved issues found in this case are as follows:

1. Noncompliance of legal standards.

2. Not providing proper working conditions like fans and all where there this seemed
possible etc.
3. Overtime work of 12 hours *7.
4. Not equitable methodology towards human resource management on the basis of
temporary and permanent workers.
5. Suppressing the workers.
6 Strike and Lockout.
7.Criminal Action And Murder