Update – Workers and management of Akbarallys store have reached a settlement.
Guess this will be the last and final update on my Akbarallys-Santacruz post. Hopefully if and when another one comes up, I hope its better news than this time.
My friend, who passes the shut store on a daily basis, saw it open the other day. She approached the workers sitting outside and learnt that a settlement has been reached upon. She immediately called and informed me about the recent matter.
The management finally decided upon a settlement. They are willing to give every worker a sum of seventy thousand rupees, they had initially decided on fifty thousand. They have come up by just twenty thousand rupees, where as the workers demand was one lakh-fifty thousand rupees.
The owner opens the store on a daily basis since the past few days. Goods from the warehouse get loaded into the shop and it is then handed over to its respective manufacturers.
Workers still sit outside the store everyday and will continue to do so until they acquire their well deserved dues.
They all seemed disappointed and tired…tired of their daily struggle and harassment. One of them mentioned “Even though we are not satisfied, if one agrees, others don’t have much choice but to agree with the given settlement. There isn’t much that can be done. Wasting anymore time doesn’t make sense.”
Hope things had ended on a better note than the current situation.
As usual the system favored the powerful and influential, whereas the rest can just go to hell! Anyways I wish the workers all the very best in the future.
Full Report, here.
Comments
3 comments | Add your comment »
softykid
Apr 5th, 2006 at 5:44 am | #
sakshi , i hope as the workers and the management have reached final settlement, u must have had a hectic days , posting those reports everyday, i hope you are satisfied with the judgement,
Vinayak
Dec 9th, 2007 at 11:53 am | #
I was a resident of santacruz for many years and we use to do a lot of shopping at akbarally’s.I knew many of the people working there at that time(especially reps in the toys section).One of those reps met my mom at the railways station and told her about this disheartening story(Well I don’t stay at santacruz anymore since the past 6 years ).It was really heart breaking to hear that people who had been working for almost 20 years now have been left high and dry after so many years of their loyalty towards akbarally’s.Pathetic!!…Simply pathetic!!
My heart goes out to every member who worked at that place and whom i knew.
Prashant
Jul 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pm | #
I was deeply touched to hear that Akbarallys (Santa cruz) has closed down. I was very emotionally attached to that store since my teenage days. There are many memories hidden there. I do remember the Santa on Christmas day at Akbarallys distributing candies and I used to wait in the queue with my sister to shake hands with Santa. We used to shop mostly for toys and garments especially on Diwali days. Its been 10 long years since I last saw Akbarallys.
Being abroad you hardly get the time to visit or see places back home in India. In fact, I was planning to visit their showroom this year, so I just thought of googling Akbarally’s website and I hear from your blog that its closed for ever.
I do feel for the employees too. some of them have spent most of their lives in this store and all of a sudden they are dumped. Strange that the media who are known to create havoc, didn’t take much interest in their plight.