(Top) Striking workers outside Viva Global.Viva Global’s office in Gurgaon

Sept. 5: Foreign help brought their plight under the spotlight, but now the workers of a Gurgaon-based factory are left to fight their own battle for minimum wages and an end to alleged intimidation.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has stopped placing orders with Viva Global, an Indian supplier of children’s wear accused of labour abuse by the British media in August. Now Viva’s workers are on a hunger-strike outside the factory gates, alleging they were beaten up in end-August and have been prevented from entering since then.

“Some 102 workers have been locked out, and are sitting on a hunger strike. Their demands for minimum wages and better work conditions have been met with hockey sticks and lathis by members of a labour contractor firm, PND, which the company hired to intimidate the workers,” said a workers’ representative, P. Saleena.

Company owner Vipin Vohra was not available for comment, and senior manager Sudhir Makhija said: “I am outside; I may be able to speak tomorrow.”

Saleena, spokesperson for the Mazdoor Ekta Manch in Gurgaon, said: “The Garment and Allied Workers Union (which represents the factory workers) had kept Marks and Spencer informed of the labour law violations from the beginning.”

Workers taking their case to their overseas clients for recourse is rare, and probably highlights the decline of the bargaining power of traditional trade unions, some of which can hardly think beyond bandhs, like the one on September 7.

If the “foreign hand” hasn’t redressed the Gurgaon workers’ grievances, the tribals of Orissa’s Niyamgiri have been luckier. Several top western companies, the Norwegian government and the Church of England sold their stakes in Vedanta following reports of the tribals’ protests against a mining project, and the government later denied the company a clearance.

Marks and Spencer has officially said it has stopped placing orders with Viva Global, with which it had done business for six years, for “commercial reasons”. The announcement, however, came after The Observer ran an expose on the working conditions at the factory, saying the workers were paid less than Rs 2 an hour and forced to work up to 16 hours a day.

The retail chain says it has found no evidence to substantiate the claims against Viva Global. A statement said: “M&S no longer sources from Viva Global. For commercial reasons only, we have not placed any orders with this factory since May and have no pending orders. All M&S production ended in August.”

Saleena said many workers, including women, were beaten up by “people from PND” on August 23. “Then an agreement was reached between the management, workers and the local labour department. But when the workers turned up on August 25, they were again beaten and intimidated by the PND people. One worker was abducted.”

The Observer said the British NGO, Labour Behind the Label, had claimed that 16 women were hurt in clashes outside the gates. The workers are demanding reinstatement, a minimum wage of Rs 4,214, payment for overtime, good drinking water, clean toilets, and action against PND.