Six production units of the Rs 125-crore disposable medical and surgical devices major Romsons Group began production after remaining under lockout for nearly three weeks due to worker unrest.
The workers finally managed to extract an assurance from the company management that it will refrain from any action against them.
According to sources in the Romsons Group, the workers had gone on a strike about three weeks back against the management’s decision of firing a few company employees for indiscipline.
All the group factories in Agra had been under lockout after the strike. The management had been holding discussions with a delegation of workers led by representatives from the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu).
An accord was reached between the two parties with certain terms and conditions, which included the reinstatement of all six employees fired from the company following a three month suspension with a full-pay. The company also assured that there will be no action against any employee for having participated in the strike.
The suspended workers will now face an internal inquiry which will be overseen by the local administration and following the inquiry, the decision will be welcomed by all involved parties, they said.
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Former Citu President Nawal Singh asserted that in compliance with the compromise reached, the workers commenced work in all Romsons Group units.
He claimed that Citu had been receiving complaints of low wages and worker exploitation in the Romsons Group since quite some time and a state of unrest had been building in all units of the group.
He said that in all, there were about 3500 workers –skilled and unskilled, working in the factories of Romsons Group but none of them were given the minimum wages they deserved. If a worker tried to raise his voice against this injustice, he was fired.
Last month, when six more workers were fired on the pretence of indiscipline, the factory workers were forced to go on a strike.
Citu the lead of the negotiations and sorted out this problem in the interest of both the workers as well as the industry on being asked to interfere by the local administration.