Various government and government-associated organisations owe ₹ 30 crore to Co-optex over purchase of textiles for uniforms and other purposes, Co-optex Employees’ Union (CEU) alleged while staging a protest to highlight the employees’ long-pending demands here on Sunday.
Stating that textiles were supplied on credit to these organisations in a bid to grow Co-optex, the union pointed out that the pending payments had instead become a huge financial burden for the Co-optex. T. Viswanathan, general secretary of CEU, claimed that the Salem Division of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation alone had not paid ₹ 18 lakh towards purchase of uniforms for the past five years. “Instead of taking legal action to recover these debts, Co-optex is shifting the burden to particular employees by deducting the amount from their salaries or retirement benefits,” he alleged.
For instance, an Assistant Salesman in Co-optex from Salem has been held accountable for ₹ 1 lakh while his annual income was just ₹ 80,000. Similarly, Co-optex had not paid ₹ 10 lakh to an employee who died in service in 2012. “The retirement benefits of employees kept on hold by Co-optex now runs to several crores,” he said. He demanded that Co-optex should immediately stop shifting the debt burden to its employees.
The protestors demanded that all employees employed temporarily must be made permanent. Similarly, they also sought an end to the practice of setting up sales camps of Co-optex in different places. “We are already short-staffed. However, the management expects us to be available at the camps and also to keep the shops open. Moreover, the cost of transporting the goods to the camps also fall on us often,” Mr. Viswanathan said.
Highlighting that CEU was planning to stage similar protests in Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Thanjavur and finally at the headquarters of Co-optex in Chennai in the coming weeks, he said that the organisation should immediately agree for legally-binding talks with CEU in the presence of Labour Department.
