The world’s largest food and beverage company, Nestle India‘s around 1,000 workers across three factories in the country are planning not to work on Sunday in protest over a lack of paid leave for organising union activities, a move the Swiss food giant said wouldn’t impact its business.
The three factories that will be affected include Nestle’s Nanjangud plant in Tahliwal unit in Himachal Pradesh in the north, Karnataka state in the south, and the Bicholim factory in Goa in the west.
The protest is in regard to that staff should get paid leave for organizing union activities involving meetings and training.
A Nestle union leader from Goa, Manguesh Gaonkar said, “The plan to skip work on Sunday would impact 215 tonnes of production at the Bicholim plant, which makes noodles and sauces.”
“We are doing this in protest and we will review the situation in the coming days,” Manguesh Gaonkar added.
He also added that there was no immediate plan to extend the unrest.
Earlier, the management had refused to negotiate on the issue. Nestle India said in a statement it was in talks with workers and did not insist they work on specified days.
“We do not anticipate any business impact, even if there is no production in a few factories on one day,” it added.
Nearly, 1,000 of the 3,500 permanent Nestle India factory workers were not going to work on Sunday. The Geneva-based International Union of Food Workers (IUF) is helping many Nestle factory staff try to reach an agreement with local management.
These non-working workers on Sunday will directly affect the production of consumer goods such as Maggi noodles and Nescafe coffee.
The stoppage from the worker’s end comes just a month before Diwali. The festive season boosts sales for the company. As many Indians distribute sweets and chocolates among families.
Nestle employs around 2,73,000 people and has factories or operations in almost every country in the world. The company has nine factories in India.
