Workers protesting peacefully for six days across Noida seeking better pay and work conditions erupted in anger on Monday, some of them vandalising property and torching vehicles, after police allegedly beat them the previous night and "took 12 protesters hostage".

The unrest in the prime industrial hub bordering the capital prompted Delhi police to barricade the city’s entry points, deploy heavier forces and intensify the checking of vehicles, PTI reported.

Noida police and industry associations claimed a handful of workers had damaged some factory buildings, set fire to a half-dozen police and private vehicles, and stoned the lawkeepers.

The workers — who allege the industries pay very little; often deny the full salary, overtime or bonus; lie about attendance; and refuse to hand over the appointment letters — accused the police of provoking peaceful protesters.

“Our suppressed anger exploded when the police lathi-charged us on Sunday night and took 12 of our colleagues hostage. We want to know where they are,” a woman worker said at Sector 62, one of six dharna sites that have witnessed protests since Wednesday.

Another woman worker said: “The police lathi-charged us and fired tear gas in the night and took away the injured workers. Policemen manhandled many women and tore their clothes... they tried to unzip our clothes.”

The police denied taking hostages, urged the workers not to believe rumours, and claimed that violence was witnessed only in Sector 62 and was controlled with minimal force.

They said FIRs had been registered against some social media handles for spreading rumours and urged people not to share unverified information.

Police sources said over 100 workers had been detained on the charges of burning vehicles and damaging property.

Late in the afternoon, the protesters blocked NH9 and the Ghaziabad-Meerut highway in Sector 62, causing long traffic snarls on Delhi’s borders with Noida.

Workers’ grouse

The workers’ key demands are the fixing of minimum monthly salaries, an overtime policy, timely bonus payment, a cell for women workers’ welfare, CCTV cameras at factory entries and exits to deter managements from lying about attendance, and a helpline for workers.

“The industries keep our appointment letters with themselves after showing them to us. They can say any day that we are not their employees, that we are contractual workers,” a woman worker from Aligarh said.

She dismissed the assurances from industry and the government about the demands having been accepted as “an attempt to cheat us and mislead the media”.

“The government is talking about salary growth, overtime and bonus, but without the appointment letters we cannot prove we are employees,” she said.

Industry sources said labourers had been on dharna in Sectors 62, 63 and 84 and at the special economic zones.

“Our number was 100 to 1,000 at the different sites. While most of the protesting workers are from apparel production units, some are from IT units,” a woman worker at a technology services company in Sector 62 said.

She complained: “Whenever the police came to a dharna site, they lathi-charged us. Whenever a member of the management came, they asked us to get lost. The management and the police use foul language against us. My salary is ₹17,000 but they pay me ₹9,000 a month.”

Nakul Kumar, a worker standing in front of an IT company in Sector 62, said: “The police caught a protesting youth and dragged him inside the factory around 1pm while beating him. We don’t know what is happening to him now.”

Dinesh Kumar, a youth employed at a garment company, said: “I joined as a helper five years ago for ₹10,000 a month. Today my salary is ₹10,700. But the cost of cooking gas has increased from ₹70 a kilogram to ₹400 within a month.

“My son’s school fees have doubled in five years. The prices of rice and pulses have risen 150 per cent. Tell me, am I wrong to demand a salary hike?”

He added: “The industrialists have kept our colleagues in confinement in a factory. The government is involved in this.”

‘Demands accepted’

Lalit Thukral, chairman of the Noida Apparel Export Cluster, was quoted as saying that “some outsiders are committing violence when we have already accepted the workers’ demands”.

Noida district magistrate Medha Roopam urged the workers “not to take the law into their own hands”.

“We held a meeting yesterday with all the stakeholders and it was decided that the employees would get double their daily wages when they work overtime and their bonus will be paid before November 30 every year,” she said.

“Salaries will be paid before the 10th of every month and a cell against the harassment of women will be set up and managed by women.”

Reports said some factory workers in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, Bhiwandi and Khairthal in Rajasthan, and Faridabad in Haryana too had started dharnas outside their units, taking the cue from their peers in Noida.

Committee formed

The state government has formed a high-level committee, headed by the industrial development commissioner, to study the industrial unrest and find a solution.

The members include the additional chief secretary for MSMEs, the principal secretary (labour and employment), five representatives from the labour unions and three from the industry associations.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath warned the workers while addressing a rally in Muzaffarnagar. “We should be careful against those creating industrial unrest. The workers must remember that we stood by them during the corona(virus) pandemic,” he said.

“We have reopened industries that were closed before 2017. We are planning to provide social security to industrial workers.”

The protests led to traffic snarls on key roads connecting Delhi and Noida, leaving commuters stranded during rush hour, PTI reported. Queues of vehicles stretched several kilometres.

Security has been intensified along Delhi’s border with Haryana, too, to prevent the protesters entering Delhi from that side, the agency added.