Labour dispute raises its ugly head at Kakrapar

Though the CAT had asked KAPP to maintain status quo till the workers’ case against the management was decided, the authorities had terminated the services of active union members and asked others to report for work only four days a week, thereby eating into their wages, alleged Chaudhary.Around 200 contract labourers have been working in radioactive and non-active areas of the plant since 1987, he said.

In a letter to S S Mundra, regional labour commissioner, Ahmedabad, Chaudhary said, that though the management admitted the contract labourers were essential to the functioning of the establishment, “yet we are not eligible for the wages, allowances and other benefits given to the regular employees.”

In his defence, plant manager (P&IR) A Belayubhan said, “So many (contract labourers) cannot be regularised. As it is, they are taken on through contractors only for seasonal jobs.”

So far as Chaudhary’s `termination’ was concerned, Belayubhan said, “He just stopped coming to work.” The union leader himself, however, claimed that security guards had asked him to surrender his entry pass on March 19 and told him not to enter the premises.

Incidentally, when Chaudhary accompanied this reporter to the plant, he was told in Express Newsline’s presence that he would not be allowed inside the plant, and that if he stayed, he could face arrest.

The conflict between the workers and the management reportedly began when the union approached CAT for the first time, seeking its intervention in the regularisation of contract workers. While ordering status quo, CAT also advised the association to approach the High Court. Subsequently, the High Court directed the Central government to look into the “working of the contract labour system at KAPP”.

However, Chaudhary alleged, when the three-member committee visited KAPP on February 20 this year, only a few “pro-management workers were allowed to depose before them”. The KAPP authorities, however, maintained that the panel had had detailed discussions with the management, including union representatives.

When contacted, Mundra, who was also the committee convener, said he had forwarded the report to the Central Advisory Contract Labour Board. Asked if the panel had met contract labourers at KAPP, he only said that the panel had been given a certain job, which it had accomplished.

Though Mundra refused to give details of the report, sources said the panel had recommended equal pay for contract labour working inside the plant, along with a guarantee for the minimum number of working days.

When contacted, Chief Superintendent of KAPP R Bhiksham said, “We cannot implement such a decision on our own; they have to be applicable to all atomic power plants.”

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