Barely one month after the local CITU unit threatened a strike at Haldia Petrochemical Ltd. (HPL), unless 183 casual workers were granted employment, HPL is once again under attack from the labour union. Fresh problems brewed as 176 CITU backed private security guards staged a sit-in-demonstration demanding retirement benefits and clearing of all dues in front of the administrative building of HPL from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. They demanded that all payments due to the security guards should be met within the next 48 hours and retirement benefits should be extended to those security guards who retired after 1996.
As per the retrenchment policy settled by the HPL authorities and CITU leaders, HPL is only liable to give benefits to the security guards who have retired after 2001. The fresh demand is a violation of the previous rule.
HPL explains that the security personnel are under employment of outside agencies, and have not been given an appointment letter, either by the agencies that employ them or by HPL. The agencies pay the security men barely 60-70% of what they get from HPL.
27-May-08 
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