The West Bengal government on Monday met the management of Dunlop India Limited (DIL) to mediate and find a solution to the lockout at the company’s Sahaganj unit in Hooghly district.
The management had slapped a notice on the suspension of work on Saturday — a decision that would affect the over 700 workers at the unit. The workers have also started a sit-in demonstration at the Sahagunj unit and will meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asking her to intervene.
State commerce and industry minister Partha Chatterjee and labour minister Purnendu Bose met the company brass at Writers’ Building and asked DIL to start work. “We have asked them to lift the suspension notice immediately. The management will discuss it at the board level and get back to us,” said Chatterjee.
However, DIL did not give a timeline to restart work. “The government has not given us any timeline. We are ready to restart work once there is an assurance that operations will not be disrupted. The ministers promised us to look into all issues, including law and order problems. Their response was positive,” said a company spokesperson.
DIL had earlier said the lockout was because of “law and order issues and non-cooperation” on the part of workers regarding transfer of raw materials. The notice said the company will have no liability to pay wages to the workers during the period of suspension of operations.
At on Monday’s meeting DIL has also asked the government to allow them to set up the proposed power plant at Sahagunj.
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“The firm’s new diversification plans are under our consideration but it will take some time,” said Chatterjee. Dunlop will appoint an independent agency to assess the viability of production and labour requirement at the Sahagunj plant.
Union representatives said they will hold a meeting of the action force that includes the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the CPIM trade unions. “The response from the management on on Monday's meeting was not positive at all,” said Santashree Chatterjee, Citu Hooghly president.