Steel plant trade unions to go on 24-hour strike on June 29

‘Wage revision has been due for more than 46 months’

All trade unions of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP) have served a strike notice on the management of RINL-VSP on Tuesday threatening to go on 24-hour strike on June 29 for the achievement of their demands.

In a statement on Tuesday, the trade union leaders noted that the wage revision of the workers of SAIL and RINL have fallen due for more than 46 months and they had waited patiently for the bipartite wage revision talks to commence. Workers, both permanent and contract, had contributed to the economic turnaround when the national economy was down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.

The unions had tried their best to convince their managements to start negotiations but the efforts failed as the management failed to come with a respectable offer for wage increase for both regular and contract workers, they said.

The other demands of the workers include: stoppage of strategic sale of RINL-VSP, the Minimum Guaranteed Benefit (MGB) should not be less than 15%, payment of full arrears of wage revision of January 1, 2017, treatment of death due to COVID-19 as death in the course of employment for both permanent and contract workers and compassionate recruitment should be provided and full implementation of all the provisions of the last wage agreement on pension contribution from January 1, 2012.