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发帖数: 737 | 1 When Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia
visited the Indian Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai in August, he
could have faced a major embarrassment.
Chinese workers at the pavilion, officials told The Hindu, had planned to
block the gates of the Rs.46.8-crore structure and prevent Mr. Scindia's
entry during India's National Day celebrations on August 18. They were
protesting what they described as low wages and irregular payment from the
contractors.
But a last-minute intervention from the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation
(ITPO), the part of the Ministry of Commerce entrusted with managing the
pavilion, averted a crisis. Chairman and Managing Director of ITPO Subas
Pani told the contractor to do whatever it took to pay the workers and
settle the dispute, said officials.
Yet, less than two months on, disputes have resurfaced between the Chinese
staff at the pavilion and the contractors. Representatives from both sides
met this week in Shanghai to address differences over payment, officials
familiar with the matter told The Hindu.
It remained unclear on Thursday whether the dispute has been resolved, or if
India will face a potentially embarrassing strike at the World Expo site
before its closure on October 31. More than 60 million people have visited
the Expo — the biggest ever world fair in history — since its May 1
opening. Director of the Indian Pavilion D.K. Nangia acknowledged there were
some disputes over payment but played them down as routine. “The issue
with the workers is not an issue with the Indian Pavilion,” he told The
Hindu. “This is an issue for the Indian contractors to resolve.”
The ITPO had a budget of more than Rs.46.8 crore for the Indian Pavilion.
The contractor, said Mr. Nangia, was the New Delhi-based Pavilions and
Interiors India Private Limited, which was awarded the contract after a
tendering process. The pavilion was built with the help of a Chinese
engineering firm, China Jingye Engineering Corporation.
Both companies could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
“I think the issue is being resolved,” added Mr. Nangia. He described the
differences as “routine commercial issues”, and said the two sides had
been in communication over the past few weeks.
One official said the contractor had, in recent weeks, made renewed offers
to the Chinese workers, but “they were not responding”. Officials would
not comment on how much the workers were being paid.
Most of the workers employed at the Indian Pavilion, and the pavilions of
most other countries, are migrant workers from China's poorer provinces,
such as Anhui and Hebei. An official affiliated to the Expo's organisers
told The Hindu there were disputes in a few other pavilions over payment
issues during the course of the six-month long Expo. “Many of the workers,
such as the security guards, were hired only on short-term contracts, and
some are concerned about whether or not they will receive their payment once
the Expo concludes,” said the official. The official added that none of
the disputes had, as yet, snowballed into a full-fledged strike.
A number of China's southern provinces have seen rising discontent among
migrant workers in recent months over low wages. Since then, provincial
governments have raised minimum wages by 24 per cent, on average, following
a number of high-profile strikes.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article830687.ece |
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