TIRUCHI
Hundreds of Defence civilian employees of Ordnance Factory Tiruchi and the Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project unit on Friday observed Nationwide Protest Day by holding demonstrations opposing corporatisation of ordnance factories and listing the production units in share market with the motive of privatisation.
At Ordnance Factory here, about 700 employees of OFT Employees Union, INTUC, Progressive Workers Union, BPMS and Ambedkar Employees Union took part in the protest. About 400 employees took part in the protest conducted at HAPP by members of HAPP Employees Union, HAPP Workers Union, INTUC and BPMS, representatives of the employee unions said.
Wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing, the protesting workers demanded that there should be no Government Owned Contractor Operator (GOCO) model in Army Base Workshops and Ordnance Depots under Army.
Criticising abolition of posts in Military Engineer Service and Army units, the protesters raised slogans saying that privatisation/ outsourcing and foreign direct investment in defence will not be accepted. They also demanded that there should be no reduction of manpower in DGQA (Directorate General of Quality Assurance) under the pretext of rationalisation and that there should be no outsourcing and abolition of posts in Navy.
Likewise, there should be no outsourcing in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and services of all casual and outsourced employees must be regularised.
The protesting employees also called upon the Central Government to withdraw the National Pension Scheme, and to desist from diluting labour laws. There should be no freeze of dearness allowance and dearness relief, they emphasised.
All posts lying vacant in Defence and other government departments must be filled, speakers at the protest meeting said.
C. Srikumar, General Secretary of All India Defence Employees' Federation, said the federations will take a decision after the second week of July on the date of start of the indefinite strike by four lakh employees in 41 ordnance factories against the Central Government's move to corporatise ordnance factories as a prelude to privatisation.
