Contract workers of Neyveli Lignite Corporation has commenced an indefinite strike demanding permanent employment among nine other things.
Contract workers went on indefinite strike last night after a tripartite meeting between Assistant Labour Commissioner S Sivarajan, NLC officer S Periaysamy and AITUC Cuddalore district secretary P Sekar in Puducherry failed to arrive at a solution over permanent employment in a phased manner.
According to Periaysamy there are over 13,000 contract working in NLC.
The public sector company had witnessed a six-day strike by 14,000 regular employees over the wage revision issue in July. The strike ended after an agreement was reached between the striking workers and the management.
The demands of contract workers included permanent employment, service regularisation, bonus and equal pay for equal work, union sources said.
Sekar said workers of all 17 trade unions were participating in the strike, power generation and lignite production were expected to hit in two days.
NLC sources termed the strike as "against the code and conduct rules of NLC". The contract workers were already getting 8.33 bonus and other benefits, the sources said.