OF unions reject govt accusation of ‘illegal strike’

Nagpur: The unions in ordnance factories have hit back at the Department of Defence Production (DPP), saying that it has no powers to decide that their strike is illegal. The letter issued on Wednesday is in response to DPP’s communication to the unions last week that their notice for an indefinite strike from October 12 was illegal.
The three unions in the ordnance factories, including the RSS affiliated Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS), have declared an indefinite strike against government’s move to corporatize the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
The three unions, in response to the DPP letter, have cited the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 to prove their point. The unions says that the ordnance employees and their associations are also covered under the same law. Under the act, the employer is not empowered to decide the validity of the strike or strike notice. Therefore, DDP being the employer in this case, is not the proper authority to decide on legality of the strike in ordnance factories.
The unions’ letter further says that section 23 of the act would only be applicable when any conciliation is pending before a board. Since no board of reconciliation has been constituted, the provision which prevents employees from going on strike during pendency of talks will also not apply.
A meeting has been scheduled with the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) on October 9. The letter say the unions are prepared to attend the meeting and will decide on further course of action after that.
C Srikumar, general secretary of the All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), said, “Talks can be held with the CLC, in line with the act, as the dispute is related to change in workers’ employment conditions. The workers will no longer be government or defence civilian employees after corporatisation.”
Srikumar said the unions have fundamentally rejected the idea of corporatisation and will rather stress during the talks that government should come up with a five year programmer on improving the ordnance factories’ functioning in the existing set up.
The unions have stressed that corporatisation cannot be a viable option because defence production is not a commercial viable business. The ordnance factories, on becoming a corporation, will have to become financially self-sustaining. This may not be easy due to fluctuating orders from the armed forces.