Contract workers under various trade unions serving the public sector Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore withdrew a decision to go on a strike after the management and trade union leaders reached an agreement on Wednesday on deployment of contract workers.
The strike had threatened to disrupt the bagging, loading, and unloading operations at the public sector company in Kalamassery.
The workers were protesting against what they alleged was the deployment of a labour supply contractor for daily works by the management of FACT, which is facing severe financial constraints and is trying to reduce expenses.
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A company spokespersons said FACT had entered into a contract for providing manpower supply/services as per the requirements of the company. The contract was given to two manpower supply agencies but when the agencies deputed workers based on the requirements, they were prevented from entering the works premises and threatened by various contract labour workers’ unions in FACT.
The labourers already engaged by these unions in the company also struck work, which affected production even as the unions demanded that workers nominated by them only could be engaged by the contractor. The FACT management said the demand for higher wages would “seriously affect the profitability of the company”.
A.D. Sujil, president of the Construction and Contract Workers’ Union, CITU, said the management had convened a meeting of the striking workers’ leaders to discuss various issues and it had been agreed that contract workers engaged by the labour contractor and the existing workers would be deployed on an 80:20 proportion and that there would be regular work for these contract workers.
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