The stalemate over reaching an agreement on a new wage accord for loadmen employed in the wholesale onion market at the Gandhi Market in the city ended on Thursday after the two sides signed a new contract providing for a 20 per cent hike in wages.
Earlier in the day, loading and unloading operations at the wholesale market was affected for some time as the loadmen, organised under the Tiruchi Vengaiya Mandi Baram Summakum Thozhilalar Munnetra Sangam, held a gate meeting and the traders held a separate meeting among themselves to discuss the issue.
New wage accord
According to the labourers, a new wage accord was due since July 2015 when the previous agreement had expired. Despite several rounds of talks no agreement was reached on the revised wage accord.
Over the past 14 months about 30 rounds of talks were held between the labourers and the traders, the labourers association representatives said.
The stalemate had resulted in frequent stirs by the load men. Though an agreement was reached recently after talks were held in the presence of Assistant Commissioner of Labour, the traders failed to sign the accord on Wednesday, they said.
As things threatened to reach a flash point on Thursday, the traders came forward to sign the agreement in the presence of Labour, Police and Revenue officials.
The agreement was signed by S. Ramalingam, general secretary of the loadmen association, and A.Vellaippan and A.Thangaraj, president and general secretary respectively of Tiruchi Onion Commission Mandi Traders’ Association.
The new wage accord would be in force for 33 months.
Loadmen would be paid Rs.7.20 for loading a 51 kg bag of onions on to lorries and get a similar amount for unloading too as per the agreement, representatives of the two associations said.
