Akbarallys Workers Dispute - Final Verdict
Update - Workers and management of Akbarallys store have reached a settlement.
Guess this will be the last and final update on my Akbarallys-Santacruz post. Hopefully if and when another one comes up, I hope its better news than this time.
My friend, who passes the shut store on a daily basis, saw it open the other day. She approached the workers sitting outside and learnt that a settlement has been reached upon. She immediately called and informed me about the recent matter.
The management finally decided upon a settlement. They are willing to give every worker a sum of seventy thousand rupees, they had initially decided on fifty thousand. They have come up by just twenty thousand rupees, where as the workers demand was one lakh-fifty thousand rupees.
The owner opens the store on a daily basis since the past few days. Goods from the warehouse get loaded into the shop and it is then handed over to its respective manufacturers.
Workers still sit outside the store everyday and will continue to do so until they acquire their well deserved dues.
They all seemed disappointed and tired…tired of their daily struggle and harassment. One of them mentioned “Even though we are not satisfied, if one agrees, others don’t have much choice but to agree with the given settlement. There isn’t much that can be done. Wasting anymore time doesn’t make sense.”
Hope things had ended on a better note than the current situation.
As usual the system favored the powerful and influential, whereas the rest can just go to hell!
Anyways I wish the workers all the very best in the future.
As usual the system favored the powerful and influential, whereas the rest can just go to hell!
Why do you think so? Do you have any concrete evidence to prove that? Maybe, the lawsuit was fair and clean. The employees are clearly not happy with the court decision and they have a multitude of problems to solve, but does that make the trial unfair?
Or is it the case that this was an out-of-court settlement and by “system” you mean something else?
Mitesh - They had an out-of-court settlement. The reason why I said the above statement was, since the Akbarallys owners have enough money and other source of income…so there was never an urgency for a settlement. They could afford to toil the workers for many more months….thanks to our judiciary system.
However for the workers, who come from un-stable econominc background…this “money” means everything. Family urgency, daily meal….all mostly depended on this income. All this could have made it difficult for them to continue with their fight. And its like wall of cards, if one falls…it takes others with it.