Day after ‘failed’ talks, government corporatizes Ordinance Factory

NAGPUR: Trade unions in ordnance factories were taken by surprise after the Union cabinet took a decision to corporatize the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The OFB, which is a government department at present, will be now made a public corporation and split into seven entities.
So far talks were under way between the government and unions through Central Labour Commissioner (CLC). On June 15, the CLC filed a failure report, which means the negotiaitons have failed. This happened abruptly without consulting us in final stages, said the union leaders and added that the very next day cabinet cleared corporatization of the OFB.
The three unions, including Left-leaning All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), Congress’ Indian National Defence Workers’ Federation, and RSS’ Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMPS), plan to hold a meeting on Sunday. Measures including launching an indefinite strike will be discussed during the meet.
During an earlier strike in August 2019, the unions had declared another indefinite strike from October 12 last year. This was soon followed by negotiaitons. Both government and unions had decided not to take any step till conciliatory proceedings were under way before the CLC.
The status quo was maintained under the section 33(1) of Industrial Disputes Act under which none of the parties take any step till the discussions are on.
However, on June 11 a meeting was held between the representatives of the three unions. “The government side was represented by the joint secretary (land systems) Puneet Arora. The government now took a stance that corporatization was a policy decision and a non-negotiable issue with the unions,” said C Srikumar, general secretary of AIDEF.
“On June 15, the CLC filed a failure report without consulting the unions,” he said and addded even requests to hold the final meeting after June 18 were ignored.
R Srinivasan, general secretary of INDWF, said, “The hurry to close the case was evident. Minutes of the June 11 meeting were released late in the night, which had a mention of a meeting with CLD on June 15. No such discussions actually took place in the meet however.”
Later, the unions wrote to the CLC asking that the meeting can be held after June 18, as the representatives needed time to respond. There was no response and CLC went ahead with the failure report on June 15. This was confirmed by Mukesh Singh, general secretary of BPMS.
Unions cannot immediately go ahead with an indefinite strike because Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) has been evoked. The order will continue till June 24. “Till then the no strike can be held,” said Singh.
“During the protests we will also highlight the case of Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited, the joint venture for setting up a plant to build AK-203 rifles at Amethi. It has been two years since the stone-laying ceremony but the production has not started. There are no unions here to delay the project,” he said.