Ramanathapuram
Workers of the Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation (TNSC) who had been on strike from November 1, pressing for a charter of demands, including 20% bonus, decided to end the 19-day-long strike and resume work from Tuesday after talks with the management on Monday.
“After reaching an amicable settlement in the talks held with TNSC Managing Director Har Sahay Meena in Chennai, we have decided to end the strike and resume work from Tuesday,” K. Pachammal, president, Workers’ Federation affiliated to the CITU, said.
The workers’ representatives after staging walkouts twice during the talks, reached an agreement after the management agreed to pay 8.33% bonus and 11.67% ex-gratia, clear the wage hike arrears for the year 2014-15 in March next year and pay the October month salary by the end of this month, he said.
The management, which had already given 8.33% bonus, agreed to pay 1.77% in a couple of days and the balance 10% during Pongal festival, he said. The management had been paying 20% bonus in the last two years, Mr. Pachammal pointed out.
The workers were represented by him, CITU district secretary M. Sivaji and DMK affiliated-Labour Progressive Front (LPF) leader Malaikannan in the talks and the management by Mr Meena, General Manager (in-charge) P.T. Dayanandan and Project Manager K. Vijayan, he said.
Production of Double Fortified Salt (DFS), loading and transportation of DFS to Andhra Pradesh would resume from Tuesday, he said. The Andhra Pradesh government had placed orders for 3,000 metric tonnes (MT) of DFS and so far about 1,000 MT had been sent, he said.
More than 1,500 workers were on strike since November 1, he added.
Collector K Veera Raghava Rao had held a meeting with the representatives of the workers and management last week and paved the way for the workers to hold talks with the MD and sorted out the issue.
