Five labourers from north India were injured when a group of local workers beat them up, accusing them of snatching away their jobs by working for lower wages, in Wadagaon in the old city in Belagavi on Thursday.
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The group of local workers was upset that the workers, mostly from Bihar, were working for half the prevalent wages. This had led to a trend of local mill owners replacing all local workers with Bihari workers causing an altercation between the two groups that ended in a clash, the police said.
A case was registered at Shahapur police station. The police have taken five persons in custody. Police officers held a meeting in Mallikarjun temple in Wadagaon on Friday and urged all workers to live in peace. They said that senior officers will speak to mill owners to ask them to pay higher wages to all workers.
Shankar Dhavali, labour activist, said that local workers were getting paid between ₹100-150 per saree woven. These wages were increased by ₹5-10 per year. But the workers from Bihar, Orissa and UP were working for ₹50-60 per saree. They are also not seeking yearly revision of wages. “They are now flooding the labour market as the owners were finding the wage rates attractive. We are planning to take out a protest rally against this,” he said.