The functioning of the Palakkad unit of Instrumentation Limited (IL) has been severely hampered by the strike by its workforce, which would enter the fifth day on Monday. There is already an impasse over the takeover of the profit-making Central PSU by the State government.
A conciliatory meeting convened by the District Labour Officer on Saturday between the striking workers’ union and the company management failed with the workers insisting on salary revision based on the 2007 scale. Their last salary revision was in 1997.
The management representatives made it clear that the Palakkad unit has no independent powers to decide on salaries and perks. The union is also demanding festival allowances for Onam citing the profit earned by the unit even when its headquarters at Kota in Rajasthan accumulated losses. The Kota unit was subsequently closed.
According to union leaders, the 320-odd employees of the company are facing discrimination because of the uncertainty over its future. Despite good performances by the employees of the Palakkad unit, the company never gave them festival allowance even during Onam, they said.
The takeover is being delayed largely because of the Union Ministry’s indecisiveness over clearing the dues of the workforce and those who retired in the recent years.
On the other hand, the State government wants a liability-free takeover. The State had made it clear earlier that the Union government must clear all salary arrears and pending benefits of the staff before handing over the unit.
A first
The Centre had requested the State government to take over the unit almost a year ago. This is the first time that a State government is taking over a Central PSU.
It is being pointed out that the takeover would be a viable option for the State government as the profit-making unit continued to be India’s largest supplier of control valves and allied instruments.
It was the accumulating losses of the mother unit that had landed the Palakkad unit in crisis.
