Tamil Nadu Petroproducts (TNPL), promoted by Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation (Spic) and Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco), today declared a lockout at two of the company’s units. The move follows labour problems at these.
While management representatives were not available for comments, a company statement said workers at the Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) and Epichlorohydrin (ECH) units in the Manali industrial belt on the outskirts of Chennai, had unfairly prevented officers from leaving the factory after working hours on Wednesday. The workers were demanding implementation of an Industrial Tribunal Award on wage settlements. The management added its talks with workers to end the deadlock yielded no results.
The company has said the lockout was only at the two units, and the third unit — Heavy Chemicals Division (HCD) — was not affected, since the dispute was not applicable to the workers there.
The company was started on June 22, 1984 and promoted by Tidco. In October 1984, Tidco had inducted Spic as the joint sector associate in setting up a project to manufacture LAB. The company manufactures linear alkyl benzene and heavy normal paraffin. LAB’s production in 2009-10 atood at 85,068 Mt, compared with 75,707 Mt a year ago.
