u/rishianand

“On April 1, HR told us our salary would be increased by Rs 30. How do you manage a cylinder that costs at least Rs 400 on that?”

In Noida’s industrial belt, workers with postgraduate degrees are wiring assembly lines for Rs 9,000 a month. While the average managerial salary has reached Rs 15.05 lakh, factory floor workers earn an average of Rs 1.76 lakh per year.

From parents sending their children to live in other cities to workers taking medication to survive 12-hour shifts, the gap between Noida’s wealth and worker survival is widening.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-hardlook-wages-survival-the-story-behind-plight-of-workers-in-noida-10645709/

The Uttar Pradesh police and administration have engaged in a “witch-hunt” and “repression” of workers and activists involved in the recent Noida workers’ protest and were also complicit in the Noida violence, said activists, lawyers and journalists during a press conference held today (April 19) at the Press Club of India.

The narrative being pushed forward by the state police and mainstream media was “false” and was vilifying activists and the workers instead of truly investigating the matter, the activists and others said at the press conference.

Social activist Sreeja said that in response to the workers’ movement that arose in Noida, which was for seeking an increase in minimum wages, double payment for overtime, dignity at their workplaces and other just and valid demands, the Uttar Pradesh police had picked up four activists (including three women) on April 11.

Sreeja said the police picked them up from the Botanical Garden Metro Station at around 6:55 pm without any justification, and that they were forcibly taken into a police vehicle.

The activists also said that the Noida police and administration had refused to even disclose whether these activists were in custody, and had not divulged their whereabouts.

https://thewire.in/news/noida-workers-protest-lawyers-activists-allege-witchhunt-by-up-police-illegal-detentions-false-narratives

A workforce denied minimum wages, social security and job security cannot be said to labour with the dignity the Constitution envisions.

https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/2045553258882859068

Watch full video: Families of Workers Arrested by Police Seek Answers (BBC Hindi) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eyNJH97IC8

The Chhattisgarh Police on Thursday filed a first information report against Vedanta Group chairperson Anil Agarwal and several others in connection with an explosion at a power plant owned by the firm that killed 20 persons and injured 15, The Indian Express reported.

The blast took place on Tuesday at Singhitarai village in the Sakti district, when a steel tube carrying superheated steam from a boiler to a turbine at the power plant burst. The superheated steam from the tube blast engulfed workers who were eating their lunch.

Sakti Superintendent of Police Prafull Thakur said on Thursday that a case had been registered at the Dabhra police station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to causing death by negligence, negligent conduct with respect to machinery and common intention.

https://scroll.in/latest/1092179/chhattisgarh-fir-filed-against-vedanta-chairperson-anil-agarwal-after-boiler-blast-at-power-plant

The revised wage hike by the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments, announced in light of a massive workers’ protest, still falls below the average daily wage at the national level, a point that protesting workers and unions have also raised. The revisions have been rejected by factory workers in both states.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday (April 13) revised the minimum wage by 21% in Noida and Ghaziabad, whereas the Haryana government had raised it by 35% earlier. Even after revision, the daily wage rate stood at Rs 582.4 and Rs 747.14 per day for unskilled and skilled workers, respectively, in Haryana. Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh, the new minimum wage stood at Rs 435.14 for unskilled workers and Rs 536.16 for skilled workers.

Most factory workers in India work on contractual basis. At the national level, the average minimum daily wage has increased from Rs 408 in 2016-17 to Rs 593 in 2023-24. In comparison, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana recorded a much slower growth.

According to a report by Business Standard, this is in contrast to the wage revisions at the top – of supervisors and managers who earn several times more than factory workers. In fact, in the same two states in 2023-24, their daily wages stood at Rs 5,127 in Haryana, and Rs 4,122 in Uttar Pradesh, whereas it was Rs 3,447 in Delhi, and the all-India average was Rs 3,860.

https://thewire.in/labour/workers-protest-revised-wage-hike-in-up-haryana-still-falls-below-national-average

"We are not asking them to increase our salaries...We are asking for fixed working hours and basic facilities.”

In the wake of a series of protests by workers in Noida over wages in the last few days, a smaller group of women employed in the gig economy gathered this morning (April 15) with a different demand: not more pay, but more predictable hours and basic dignity at work.

About 40 women who work with UrbanCompany, a platform that provides at-home services, assembled outside a training centre in Sector 60, calling for an 8-hour workday, weekly time off and access to essential facilities like drinkingwater and toilets.

Their protest comes as other groups of workers across the city have taken to the streets since April 10, pressing for higher #wages.

But the women here said their concerns were rooted less in how much they earned than in how they were made to work.

The women described a system in which their earnings could fluctuate sharply based on customerratings and strict punctuality metrics. Even arriving a minute late, they said, could result in penalties.

The protesting women said supervisors were often unreachable and, at times, threatened to deactivate their accounts.

The nature of their work, #traveling from one customer’s home to another, also leaves them without access to basic amenities.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/women-gig-workers-protest-noida-no-fixed-hours-place-sit-washroom-10637628/

Sixteen people were killed and 19 injured in a boiler tube blast at the Vedanta Limited power plant in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district earlier this week.

According to an Indian Express report, the blast took place around 2:30 pm on Tuesday (April 14) at Vedanta’s Singhitarai power plant. A senior district official quoted by the paper said, “After the pipeline burst, superheated steam with a temperature of around 600 degrees fell on the people who were having their lunch. Some others who were walking in open spaces also got injured.”

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, the report said.

The injured have been admitted in various hospitals in the Raigarh district while a few are seeking treatment at private hospitals in Bilaspur.

The blast

According to Ajit Naskar, one of the workers present at the time of the blast, 40-50 people were involved in painting work when the tube blew up.

“I have been working here for over a month. We were given the work of painting the premises. The incident happened around 2.30 pm when we were just starting our work post-lunch. Suddenly I heard a blast and there was smoke everywhere. We were at a height of 17 metres. I was in one corner so I hid inside a cupboard. Some people climbed down and ran off. Forty to fifty people were doing painting work at the time,” Naskar said.

Protests erupted outside the power plant after the incident. Chandra Sen Patel, among those protesting at the power plant, said that he lost his father in the blast. “My father, a housekeeper, died on the spot,” he told the media.

https://thewire.in/labour/chhattisgarh-boiler-tube-blast-at-vedanta-power-plant-kills-16-injures-19

After protests by factory workers in Noida turned violent, police in Gautam Buddh Nagar detained hundreds of people. But for many families, the question is no longer about charges or FIRs, but something far simpler: where are their loved ones?

We spoke to families in Naya Gaon and outside Phase 2 police station who say they still have no clear information about those detained.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/04/15/at-least-tell-us-you-have-him-families-search-for-missing-workers-after-noida-crackdown

Since Thursday last week, hundreds of contractual workers blockaded the main road next to the NSEZ metro station in Noida. They stood in the sun demanding one thing: a minimum wage of Rs 20,000.

By Monday, that protest spilled into a wider, more volatile confrontation across Noida’s industrial belt.

Thousands of workers, primarily from the garments sector, reportedly took to the streets across different areas of Phase II, with protests spreading to Sector 62 and causing major traffic snarls. In Sector 84 of Phase I, protesters allegedly set vehicles on fire, with two vehicles reported gutted. During demonstrations, some protesters allegedly vandalised even a police car and office property, and incidents of stone pelting were reported. Police personnel were deployed across affected areas and used tear gas to disperse crowds. Over 50 people have been arrested.

https://scroll.in/latest/1092076/noida-violence-erupts-at-workers-protests-seeking-salary-hikes-workplace-safety