When Bajirao Thengde voiced his fears about going to work after dozens of colleagues fell sick with coronavirus, his boss at a motorbike factory in western India said he should "learn to live with the virus."
As India's coronavirus cases exceeded one million last week, unions say similar spikes in infections in reopened factories are putting workers at risk — accusing companies of skimping on health and safety as they rush to get business back on track.
It was only after several workers died and district authorities ordered a seven-day lockdown that Thengde's plant in Maharashtra state finally closed on July 10, weeks after calls for it to shut when the first cases appeared.