Employee unions in Ordnance Factory Tiruchi and Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project have initiated the process of conducting a strike ballot later this week to decide on whether to go on an indefinite strike to oppose “the move by the Central Government to corporatise” Ordnance Factory Board that administers the various defence units across the country.
Calling for withdrawal of the decision for “corporatisation,” the All India Defence Employees Federation, Indian National Defence Workers' Federation, Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, and Confederation of Defence Recognised Associations (CDRA) had conveyed to the High Level Official Committee earlier this month that the 82,000 defence civilian employees employed in ordnance factories across the country will be able to achieve the production target of ₹ 30,000 crore in the next five years in the present set up as a government department.
"Employee unions have started the process of strike ballot for indefinite strike against corporatisation of ordnance factories,” General Secretary of AIDEF C. Srikumar said.
The federations had, while opposing corporatisation, suggested that the structure of the OFB could rather be made similar to that of Railway Board, ISRO or Department or Atomic Energy.
The federations had decided to go ahead with the indefinite strike as the Central Government had, while giving an assurance to safeguard benefits and interests of employees in terms of wages, salary, retirement benefits, health facilities and other service matters, will go ahead with converting OFB into one or more corporations.
The stand of the CDRA is that the self-reliance/indigenisation of OFB at about 90 percent was exemplary when compared to other DPSUs. “Unlike other entities in defence sector, the ordnance factories have exported worth ₹ 264 crore during 2018-19. As per the CAG report, OFB had already achieved cost production of ₹ 20,037crore in 2016-17, but due to the order to foreign and private sectors, it reduced to ₹14,000 crore in 2018-19. Through modernisation and Research and Development, ordnance factories can achieve ₹ 30,000 crore by 2024-25 as expected by the government,” B. B. Mohanty, General Secretary, CDRA, and B.K. Singh, its president, said.
A time limit of three to five years must be given to the OFB, in the existing structure, to achieve the task of ₹30,000 crore target, failing which the government can decide on corporatising it, they said.
