Trade union federations have slammed the notification issued by Ministry of Defence inviting expression of interest from interested parties to provide assistance for corporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
The All India Defence Employees Federation, the Indian National Defence Workers’ Federation and Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh have decided to oppose and reject any recommendations of the consultant to corporatise the OFB, a conglomerate of 41 factories, nine training institutes, three regional marketing centres, and five regional controllers of safety.
“The Centre was staging a drama by engaging the federations through the High Level Official Committee on the one hand and going ahead with its policy decision for corporatisation on the other. The game plan has been totally exposed,” General Secretary of AIDEF C. Srikumar said. Opposing what he described as a ‘retrograde steps’, Mr. Srikumar said the struggle of the federations against the corporatisation plan will be intensified.
The EOI cum Request for Proposal notified by the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, invites guidance from India-based consulting agencies to provide management consulting services covering topics like strategic future growth, optimal operational strategy, organisational restructuring and other related implementation issues with respect to transition management, financing, and legal aspects, in keeping with its announcement to convert OFB into one or more Government-owned corporate entities registered under the Companies Act, 2013.
Citing the strike ballot conducted recently in which there was overwhelming support of employees to take part in an indefinite strike against the corporatisation plan, Mr. Srikumar said the decision of the EOI had come at a time when the federations were expecting a favourable decision to the letter they had sent to the Prime Minister seeking withdrawal of the decision, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 situation, economic problems and the border stand-off at Ladakh.
