Kolkata, May 15 (IANS) The staff at Kolkata’s INOX Swabhumi have been protesting on social media, after the management allegedly denied them payment and terminated their contacts.
The workers, many of whom get paid Rs 1000 per month or less, also took to staging peaceful protest outside the theatre with placards that read: “We are INOX employees. We have no salary. What will we eat?”
The employees also alleged that they cannot share their complaints on the official page of INOX Leisure Limited as their profiles have been blocked.
Videos of the theatre’s staff, standing with placards in hands, are doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, where they talk about their helpless condition and urge for help.
Srikanta Ghatak, whose Facebook profile describes him as an Operation Associate at INOX Swabhumi Kolkata, shared in a post written in Bangla, “I humbly request you all to help us. A private company like INOX is not treating us as human beings. They have made their staff work so hard but are now denying salaries. They have a turnover of crores but they don’t feel it necessary to pay their staff the minimal salary during this lockdown. Please stand by us and spread the word.”
Ghatak shared a photo of an aged employee standing with a placard in his hand which reads, “No salary, no food, 89 INOX Swabhumi staff”.
He captioned: “Nemai uncle has been serving INOX Swabhumi for the last 12 years. His salary was only Rs 10,000, which the company didn’t pay. How much will you save by denying this meager? You are forcing them to commit suicide. INOX, please hear us out and stop terminating our contracts. A lot of us do not have smartphones and hence cannot access or raise their voice on social media. Is this what they get in return for their loyalty?”
A video shared on a Facebook page, titled ‘Protests against companies for termination n no salary’, shows four men in uniforms standing in a row. They express in Hindi: “Namaskar. We are employees of INOX Swabhumi. We are operation associates. We are protesting against the company. We have not being given our salaries amid this coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. The company is also rusticating us. Please share this video and help our words reach the honourable Prime Minister and Chief Minister.”
Babai Mondal, whose Facebook profile reads “Engineering Supervisor at INOX Leisure Ltd”, shared a photo on the abovementioned page. In the photo, Mondal stands with a placard, with this slogan in Bangla: “I am a worker at INOX. I have no salary. What will I eat?”
Another employee, Dinesh Singh shared a photo on Facebook where he can be seen standing with his two kids, placard in hand. He wrote: “Served INOX for the last 10 years as an operation associate (O.A.) but in this time of corona (COVID-19), the company has left us. Even our third party contract has been discontinued by Inox. Now what will we do? We have no getting salary this month.”
–IANS
abh/vnc