More than 1,300 workers, including about 700 women of the Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation (TNSC) staged a sit-in dharna inside the complex at Valinokkam, near here, protesting the delay in payment of third instalment of arrears after the workers and Corporation reached a wage revision agreement in 2013.
After paying the arrears in two instalments last year, the Corporation had been delaying payment of the third instalment to about 300 workers for the past several months, forcing all workers to stage the protest after striking work on Friday, M. Sivaji, District Secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said.
The trade union leader, who spearheaded the agitation said that after staging several rounds of agitations, the workers gave a strike notice in March, threatening to go on strike from April, after which, the management held talks with workers’ representatives and assured them to clear the dues on June 10.
The talks were held in the presence of labour officer but the Corporation failed to honour its commitment, he said.
Protesting against this, the workers struck work for a day on June 11 and staged the mass sit-in dharna on Friday. After yesterday’s protest, the Corporation held talks with the representatives of the workers and offered to clear the arrears on June 23, he said.
Sivaji, K. Pachaiammal, president and T. Murugavel, secretary of the TNSC, CITU took part in the talks.
The Corporation was represented by Deputy Manager Paramanandam and Manager (Finance), Mr. Sivaji also said.
He said about 1,500 people were employed at the TNSC and close to 1,300 of them were employed as contract workers.
Many of them have served for 20 to 35 years as contract workers, he said and demanded the regularisation of service of all those who had completed 10 years service.
