Around 1,000 workers at three Nestle factories in India are not allowed to work on Sunday because of a lack of paid leave for organising union activities, a move that the Swiss food giant said won't affect its business.
The Geneva-based International Union of Food Workers IUF is helping many Nestle factory staff try to reach an agreement with local management, saying that they should get paid leave for organising union activities involving meetings and training.
IUF India Campaign Officer Pravin Khotkar told Reuters that management had refused to negotiate and so around 1,000 of the 3,500 permanent Nestle India factory workers were not going to work on Sunday, potentially affecting the production of consumer goods such as Maggi noodles and Nescafe coffee.
Nestle India said it was in talks with workers and did not insist that they would work on specified days. It said we did not anticipate any business impact, even if there is no production in a few factories on one day.
The planned stoppage comes just ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali next month, when many Indians decorate their homes and distribute sweets and chocolates among family, boosting sales for consumer firms.
IUF's Khotkar said the stoppages were planned at Nestle's Nanjangud plant in Karnataka state in the south, the Bicholim factory in Goa in the west and the Tahliwal unit in Himachal Pradesh in the north.
Nestle has nine factories in India, a key growth market for the company. In India, it recorded profits of 21.4 billion rupees $263 million in the year 2021, on sales of 146.3 billion rupees.
Manguesh Gaonkar, a Nestle union leader from Goa, said that the plan to skip work on Sunday would affect 215 tons of production at the Bicholim plant, which makes noodles and sauces.
He said we will review the situation in the coming days, and there was no immediate plan to extend the disruption.