The tiff between the trade union workers and tractor owners over certain issues relating to wage distribution has been resolved at a meeting of the tractor owners and trade union leaders convened by the District Collector, R. Girija, here on Saturday.
The goods transportation from Pampa to Sabarimala Sannidhanam was partially hit for a few days due to shortage of workers who were supposed to undertake the loading and unloading work at Sabarimala.
The trade union leaders informed the meeting that many workers had left Pampa as they were not getting their wages promptly.
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The meeting decided that the tractor owners should promptly distribute wages to all workers once in every two weeks. The District Labour Officer has been entrusted to resolve the issue, if any, arise in this regard in future.
The trade unions would provide the names of people to whom the wages should be transferred soon and the tractor owners should obtain a voucher from these people on receipt of the wages. The Labour Officer should take up any unresolved issue with the Collector to see that the goods movement to Sabarimala remained uninterrupted.
In the beginning, various trade unions have provided as many as 250 workers at Pampa for loading and unloading work. But, only 80 of them were left as the tractor owners failed to distribute their wages on time, the union leaders said. And now with the wages issue resolved, more workers would be deployed at Pampa soon, the union leaders said.
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The Collector said the Forest department had extended the time for tractor movement on the Swami Ayyapan Road till 8 p.m.
The tractor owners said they would provide the wages as fixed at the meeting held in the presence of the Collector in August.
45 lakh tonne jaggery
The Travancore Devaswom Board requires 40,000 kg jaggery a day for the Appam and Aravana preparation during the annual pilgrim season. The contractors have to transport 45 lakh tonne jaggery to the TDB godown at the Sannidhanam before the beginning of the pilgrim season on November 16.
And now, with the resolution of the trade union issues, the goods movement on the Pampa-Sannidhanam route has been restored, sources told The Hindu .
The Collector has directed the tractor owners to control the alleged over-speeding of tractors on the Sabarimala road and not to overload the vehicles.
Satheesh Bino, Superintendent of Police, P.T. Abraham, Deputy Collector, P. Saudamini, District Labour Officer, S. Haridas (CITU), G. Satheeshkumar (BMS), R. Sukumara Pillai, and Jyotishkumar Malayalappuzha of INTUC, M.V. Vidyadharan (AITUC), all trade union leaders, T. Shefeeq, Sajith Joy, K. Ratheeshkumar and tractor owners’ association leaders, attended the meeting.