The Supreme Court has issued notice to public sector undertaking Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) Limited’s Chairman for civil contempt of court action on a petition moved by a trade union.
The notice was issued on March 16, 2015 by a Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi on a petition moved by NLC INDCOSERVE Thozhilazar Uzhiyar Sangam alleging that the PSU did not comply with an April 16, 2013 Supreme Court order to absorb contract workmen as per a seniority list approved by it way back in 2010.
The corporation is engaged in mining lignite and production of power using the mined lignite.
“Vast areas in and around Neyveli are presently being mined and projects in Barsingsar, Rajasthan and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu are in different stages of execution,” said the petition drawn by Supreme Court advocate G. Ananda Selvam and filed by Ravindra Keshvrao Adsure.
It said the Supreme Court had disposed of the case after the government gave an undertaking that all workmen, including those in the trade unions, were considered in the list prepared and they would be absorbed as employees of the corporation.
“However the corporation has not absorbed even a single member of the applicant union or any other union in terms of the order of this Court, even though about the 7,984 employees of the respondent corporation have retired from the regular service between 1992 to June 30, 2010 and to that extent there are regular vacancies. Similarly, about 2,378 employees of the corporation have opted [for] VRS from 1995 to 2006,” the petition contended.
It pointed out how of 9,500 contract workmen, nearly 250 are toilet cleaners and housekeeping workmen, and they are cleaning toilets without any safety measures.
“Their service is indispensable, and in spite of their indispensability they are not regularised and they are also included in the seniority list for absorption,” it alleged.
The petition claimed that the corporation is “earning profit at the risk of the life of the contract workmen in thousands of crores and the same is being shared by the elite group of officials who are living luxuriously”.
