A company release said, "The new settlment was signed after constructuve and fruitful negotiations with the employees' union. The consensus reached during the discussions with the employees marks a new era for Mukand in their relationship with workmen." "This partnership forged between the management and the workmen with goodwill on both sides means that Mukand can go forward with a new dynamism and flexibility appropriate to the modern economy," adds the realease.

The settlement covers improvements in productivity-linked incentives and gratuity beyond statutory provisions and re-deployement and rationalisation of workforce in certain departments.

The settlment also entails increases in the emoluments of the workmen. The new set of emoluments as per the new wage settlment ranges between Rs 1,134 per month for workmen in the lowest grade to Rs 2,128 per month for those in the highest grade. The agreement will be valid upto 2002.

The company has recently embarked on the programme of total productive maintainance (TPM) with support from Japanese experts. The workmen's agreement incorproates commitments and undertakins by the workmen on quality mangement and other steps to faciliate the implementation of TPM.

The company has the support of the workmen in implementing major cost-cutting measures. In fact, a large part of the additional financial burden on account of the settlement is expected to be met through savings from the measures agreed to by the workmen in this settlement.