(This was originally posted in The Hindu)
Defence Civilian Employees Decide To Go On Indefinite Strike Taking a “very serious note” of the Central Government’s “autocratic and arbitrary” decision to convert the Ordnance Factory Board with 41 production units into seven corporations, the three main federations of defence civilian employees at its joint meeting on Sunday decided to commence indefinite strike from July 19.
Representatives of All India Defence Employees’ Federation, Indian Natinol Defence Workers’ Federation, and Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, expressed serious concern over what they termed as “violation” of all previous written assurances and commitment given to the federations by the Government that the ordnance factories will not be corporatised.
In the absence of the three major federations, the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) had “hastily” concluded the conciliation proceedings and recorded a failure report on June 15, which enabled the Cabinet to take its decision on the issue, C. Srikumar, General Secretary of All India Defence Employees Federation said.
Viable and robust proposals given by the federations as desired by the Secretary of Defense Production for the continuance of ordnance factories as government organizations have been ignored by the Central Government. The government’s decision on corporatization will jeopardize the survival of a majority of ordnance factories and cause serious repercussions on service matters of employees, their job security, wage protection, and terminal benefits.
While discussing the possibility for legal actions in consultation with senior lawyers, they decided to serve the notice for an indefinite strike on July 1, and to inform the government about their decision to go on an indefinite strike on June 23, Mr. Srikumar said.
