NEW DELHI: Indian police have detained around 100 striking workers and union leaders protesting low wages at a Samsung Electronics plant in southern India, as they were planning a march on Monday without permission, police officials said.

The detention marks an escalation of a strike by workers at a Samsung home appliance plant near Chennai city in the state of Tamil Nadu.

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Workers want higher wages and have boycotted work for seven days, disrupting production that contributes roughly a third of Samsung’s annual India revenue of $12 billion.

A senior police official of Kancheepuram district, Sankar Ganesh, told Reuters by telephone that around 100 workers were under “preventive arrest”, without elaborating.