Workers near the Tata Motors plant on Wednesday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Singur, Feb. 20: Finding a workman not wearing full-length trousers and a squeaky clean crash helmet was not easy at the Tata Motors site today.

The 5,000-odd people working on the Nano plant had been issued a dress code.

“We do not know (aamra jaani na) who is coming, but we have been told to wear full pants and not to forget our safety helmets,” said a worker taking a tea break at a stall outside the premises, unaware of the reason for the sudden emphasis on the gear.

A few who were more in the know said “maybe the boss of the construction company” (Shapoorji Pallonji) was coming.

“Amaader ki, how does it matter to us who is coming as long as we get our pay. We are wearing these (helmets) because we have been told to,” said a worker.

The ones who had turned up in lungis and without the helmet were not allowed to remain anywhere in the vicinity of Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant, when he was here.

“They asked me to go to the other side,” said one them, taking a tea break at Narayan Pal’s tea stall, a biri in hand.

None of the workers wanted to be named.

The owner of a tea stall outside the plant also wondered why the workers came dressed today. “Not all of them come in helmets on other days,” he said.

The workers, employed by 63 contractors, get paid between Rs 80 (for freshers) and Rs 125 a day depending on their job.

They get “overtime money” for working more than eight hours in a day. The usual contract is for a month.

Pal, whose tea stall has become a sort of an institution since work on the plant began, said sales have gone down of late.

“I used to make Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 a day earlier, selling snacks, tea and supplying foodgrain and other provisions to the factory. Now it is down to Rs 1,200 to 1,400 a day.”

The reason, according to Pal, was restrictions on stepping out of the plant premises on new entrants.

The contractors issue passes to the workers, allowing them to enter or leave the site at will.