MUMBAI, November 24: The Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has asked the Khatau Mills management to submit a package for revival of the mill which shut down in March this year claiming sickness. It has also recommended that finished goods lying in the mill be sold to pay 50 per cent of workers' wages, amounting to nearly Rs 1.5 crore.The matter came up for hearing before a BIFR bench comprising Justice Shrivastav and Ashim Chatterjee in New Delhi on November 13. The issue of the true representative union in the mill resurfaced, and the Khatau management and the legally recognised union, Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh, contested the proposal forwarded by rival union Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti (GKSS). After considering arguments of both unions, the bench held that if the management's proposal is rejected, the proposal having the backing of majority of workers will be considered. This ruling can have far-reaching implications for mills where rival unions enjoy majority support, but have no bargaining power due to RMMS' presence.The GKSS proposes to run the mill through a workers' co-operative, where all employees will join the proposed society and contribute Rs 3,000 from their provident fund. GKSS president Gayatri Singh said: ``The issue is not of union rivalry, rather, of which promoter forwards a viable proposal supported by majority of the workers. Four thousand workers have already agreed to our proposal.''In a letter dated October 28, 1997 to BIFR, State Labour Minister Sabir Shaikh stated that ``Khatau Mill workers are with GKSS, hence they should be given the right to run the mill on a co-operative basis.''Sachin Ahir, RMMS president, dismissed the GKSS proposal, saying a workers' co-operative is not a ``viable concept''. He also claimed that BIFR had squashed the GKSS case, and that RMMS would be submitting its own proposal.As BIFR has not fixed a time-frame for the Khatau management to submit its proposal, the question is whether Panna Khatau will evince interest in running the mill. The workers have not been paid their wages since March, nor have they got their 1995-96 bonus.
