Workmen of Renault Nissan vehicle manufacturing facility at Oragadam and Wipro Infrastructure Engineering at Irungattukottai near here have approached the Madras High Court against the exemption granted by the State government to automobile and allied industries from the ongoing lockdown to fight COVID-19.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy ordered notices to the State government as well as the management of both the factories on individual writ petitions filed by the workers union through their counsel Maithreyi Canthaswamy Sharma. The workmen had challenged the exemption granted to their industries from the lockdown by categorising them as continuous process units.
Senior counsel V. Prakash brought it to the notice of the court that a Government Order issued on May 8 had exempted industries manufacturing essential commodities and those categorised as continuous process industries from the lockdown in order to protect the economy and livelihood of people.
The GO had listed refineries, large steel plants, cement plants, chemical industries, sugar mills, fertilizers and so on as continuous process industries.
Surprisingly, even automobile manufacturing units and tyre manufacturing units had been included under the category, he said and claimed that the workmen of these industries were apprehensive of getting infected with COVID-19. He said the Renault Nissan workmen were not covered under Employees State Insurance Scheme and that the management had provided health insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh only for employees and not their family members.
