Nearly 5,000 workers of the public sector company Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), employed at nine facilities across the country, will go on a strike on December 11 demanding payment of performance-based incentive.
Addressing the media, B.K. Chandrashekar, convener of the United Action Front, the umbrella representing the unions in the defence PSU, said the strike call was a result of the BEL management’s “adamant attitude and failure to reach an amicable settlement with the workers on the issue of payment of incentive in lieu of bonus.”
PPI “The bone of contention is the management’s insistence that the Plant Performance Incentive (PPI) will be on the basis of the company’s operating profit instead of profit before tax,” said Gangadhar Bhustalimath, general secretary, BEL Workers Union. He said although the company’s pre-tax profits had increased from Rs. 1,075 crore in 2011–12 to Rs. 1,140 crore in 2012–13, it was offering a PPI of Rs. 10.58 crore for 2012–13, against Rs. 15 crore in the previous year.
“How can we accept an incentive structure that penalises workers even as the company increases its profit,” he asked.
Mr. Bhustalimath argued that operating profits were affected by factors over which the workers had no control. “For instance, BEL,” he said, “suffers losses on the supply of electronic voting machines, which will affect operating profits, but how are we responsible for this?”
The unions issued a strike notice on November 25, Mr. Bhustalimath said. He said conciliation proceedings before the Labour Commissioner “have dragged on without the management showing any signs of reaching a fair settlement.”
