Vadodara, Oct 16: Responding to the one-day mass casual-leave call given by the IPCL employees' unions, majority of the employees at the Vadodara complex abstained from their work. In the morning, there were reports of blocking of roads leading to the complex and obstructing of employees who wanted to report to their work places. Elaborate security arrangements were made with the help of the local police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). No major untoward incident was reported and all plants at Vadodara operated at their normal capacities with the help of officers and workers who reported for work. The operations at Nagothane in Maharashtra and Gandhar (Dahej) in Gujarat were normal. The IPCL management has appealed to all employees not to resort to agitations in this difficult period and co-operate to ensure safe operations of all the plants.None of the IPCL employees qualifies for statutory bonus under the payment of bonus act. IPCL has been operating a productivity-linked incentivescheme from mid 1980s. For 1997-98, the amount payable under the scheme has been finalised based on the fomulae in operation.
Keeping in mind the sharp decline in profitability and the difficult market environment, the company had offered Rs 3,000 to all employees as ex gratia cash award. The unions are, however, agitating for a cash award in excess of Rs 5,500, which was the gift amount paid last year.
The management has been discussing this matter with the office bearers of the unions. As an amicable solution could not be arrived at, the management has released an ad-hoc payment of Rs 10,000 to eligible employees on the eve of Diwali. The labour machinery also tried to resolve the matter amicably and impress upon the unions to arrive at an agreement and not to proceed on strike or resort to stoppage of work, as IPCL is public utility as per the government notification. The talks continued till the early hours of Friday and in spite of this, the employees' unions instructed their members to opt for masscasual leave. The unions have also given a strike call from October 19 to 23.
The management still expects that the unions will forsake agitation and arive at an amicable solution keeping the overall perspective in mind.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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