Strike ends at Indo Rama, settlement before Diwali

The workers of Indo Rama group at Butibori ended their 37-day long strike on Tuesday evening on an assurance from the management that their main demand will be settled before Diwali.

Separate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed by the management and workers' representatives of Indo Rama Synthetics Ltd (IRSL) and Indo Rama Textiles Ltd (IRTL). Workers were expected to join work in full strength by the second shift today.

The initiative to bring an end to the deadlock was taken by the management and workers' representatives of IRSL, with mediation from MP Subodh Mohite and MLA Devendra Fadnavis.

From the management side, the MoU was signed by G P Bhatia, president, C V Khandelwal, chief operating officer (Polyester & DTY), Prasanna Mohile, head (external relations), Vikrant Sardeshpande, manager (personnel) and Mukund Bhalerao, deputy general manager (HR) of IRSL. Five elected workers' representatives-Pravin Tamgire, Dilip Rewatkar, Rajesh Singh, Erene Noha and Eugene Anthony, signed the agreement.

As per the MoU, the management will start talks on the long-term settlement (LTS) as soon as the workers returned to work. The LTS will be signed by October 30 and it will be implemented with retrospective effect from May 1, 2005.

The management will also bear the hospital expenses of workers who were injured in the firing incident on September 17. The management also undertook to drop charges against workers and there will be no adverse effect on future benefits of workers. The management has also agreed to provide necessary facilities to contract workers.

After the signing of the deal at IRSL yesterday, IRTL workers got in touch with their leader, guardian minister Satish Chaturvedi, who directed them to conclude a similar deal with the IRTL management. Consequently, an MoU was signed between the management and the five workers' representatives of IRTL.

Vijay Telang, one of the workers' representative at IRTL, said that there was a slight difference in the MoUs of IRTL and IRSL. At IRTL, the LTS will be signed by October 31 and negotiations for the LTS will be held in the presence of Satish Chaturvedi.

Workers of both IRSL and IRTL, it may be recalled, had gone on a flash strike following the firing on a group of workers by the company's chief security officer Vijay Varman on September 17.

Three workers had been injured in the firing. The entire unionised workforce, including contract workers, had stayed away from work since then. IRSL has 1,144 regular workers and 800 contract workers while IRTL has 1,100 regular workers and 700 contract workers. Several attempts were earlier made to bring a settlement between the management and workers.