Mumbai, Nov 26: Ralliwolf has lifted the five-month old lockout at its Mulund factory after all 300 employees agreed to a 19 per cent wage cut. The management of the HM Proddar company reached an agreement with the employees to keep the electrical tools manufacturing unit running by taking the wage cut. The company is expected to save nearly Rs 40 lakh every month on account of the reduction in the salary bill.The 60-and-odd management staff are also expected to take a salary cut. As per the agreement signed between the management and employees at its portable power electrical tools factory at Mulund, the production would continue with a reduced burden of wages.
The Ralliwolf management had put up a notice in June this year declaring a lockout at the factory due to a financial crunch. The Ralliwolf employees union later filed a case in the industrial court as well as the Mumbai High Court seeking to lift the lockout. However, the management refused to lift the lockout even though both the courts declared it illegal.
Consequently, the production at the plant had come to a grinding halt for the last five months and the employees were languishing without salaries.The average salary for the workers is Rs 10,000 per month while the managers earn an average salary of Rs 14,000.
The industrial relations dispute was triggered at the Ralliwolf three years back when the company tried to take protection under the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction citing scarcity of funds.
The BIFR has appointed term-lending institution ICICI Ltd to investigate the causes for the sudden sickness of the company and submit a report.
The Mulund factory, which had an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore, supplied portable power electrical tools to the sister concern of the group-the HM Engineering Undertaking. The products are also supplied to the construction and fabrication industry.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.