According to a company notice, the decision to lock out DMC, which has about 323 employees on its payroll, was primarily taken due to consistent losses in the last five years.

For the financial year 2006-07 (for 18 months till August 2007), the company registered a loss of Rs 29.66 crore.

Subsequently, from October 2007 to June 2008, the losses incurred by the company were to the tune of Rs 14.73 crore.

The company notice attributes the losses to the huge increase in rates of raw material in the international markets.

The price of sulphur, a key raw material that has to be imported, has witnessed a 10 fold increase while the price of rock phosphate — another raw material — has quadrupled.

On the other hand, the prices of the fertilizers decided by the government have not complemented the huge increase in the prices of raw materials.

Moreover, the company notice has put blame for the cessation of work and lockout on the failure of the workers to cooperate. Anil Kale, general secretary of the Rashtriya Chemical Kamgar Sanghatna, refuted the allegations of the company management that the workers were not cooperating. “The company has not paid its workers for the last three months,” said Kale. He added that company had dismissed him from service on January 22 this year.

DMC, which is known for manufacturing sulphuric acid, started from a ramshackle garage enterprise in 1921.

Initially known by the name of ‘Kala Company’ due to its black façade, DMC had a manufacturing capacity of 8 tons of sulphuric acid per day, which gradually peaked to 500 tons per day.

In the 1920s, Ambernath was known for two land marks — Haji Malang shrine and the archaic Shiv Mandir.