BPCL employees given notice to retire by May 17

Prayagraj: The employees of the public-sector company, Bharat Pumps and Compressor Limited (BPCL), are faced with an unprecedented situation. When they were busy working day and night to complete the order of making 2,500 oxygen cylinders, all the 140 employees received a mail instructing them to get retired by May 17.
As per the decision of the central government on May 9, 2020, BPCL was closed. The 140 employees were asked to opt for voluntary separation scheme (VSS), failing which, the order said, they would be shown the door without being given any monitory benefits.
However, as the entire state witnessed a dearth of oxygen cylinders in the ongoing second wave of Covid-19, the district administration took a timely decision. A proposal was sent to the state government mentioning that BPCL, given its expertise and infrastructure, should be allowed to manufacture the oxygen cylinders.
After getting an approval from the ministry of heavy industry, the state government placed an order to Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) to supply 2500 oxygen cylinders. BHEL in turn, placed the order to BPCL to manufacture these cylinders, and also gave an amount of Rs 3.68 crore to the company.
After getting the order, the employees of the company started working with a new energy as the order was to be completed within 21 days.
“The workers were happy and were working with a new force to complete the order. When the company officials were waiting for the visit of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) team to get the required license for manufacturing of cylinders, this mail has landed,” said the employees’ leader, RLD Dubey. On May 13, BPCL chief general manager (CMD) Sunil Parvani received the mail that all the employees should get retired within a week without delay as per the instructions of the ministry of heavy industries.
“If we are being shown the door, who is going to make these cylinders? Will someone tell us?,” asked Dubey. “There is no one to listen to our ordeal,” he added.
Sources informed that once these employees are retired, the government wants to engage them on contract basis to get the order of cylinders completed. However, this is not acceptable to the workers.