Workers-management conflict hits diamond Co

Employees unions alleged the management has been pressurising workers to resign and sign new contracts. The chairman of the SDL Staffs Association, Jaydeep Shah, said: “The management is trying to manipulate workers’ service contract. The dispute is pending in the labour court…we are waiting for the judgment.”

A worker said: “Our earnings depend on the number of pieces of diamonds we polish and cut each day. The management deliberately provides us with hard raw materials. That reduces our speed and our pay packets too.”

However, senior company officials denied these allegations and termed the strike as unjustified. They also blamed workers for the recurring losses to the company. “We have lost many valuable orders from our foreign clients because of the delay caused by striking workers,” a senior officer said.

The Deputy general manager, Srikant Marathe, said: “We can not fulfill all the workers’ demands.” He, however, denied that hard diamonds were provided to workers to harass them. “We have no control on the mines. The workers will have to bear with us,” he added.A senior manager of the SDL said: “The diamond industry is going through a recessionary phase…and we are trying to cut down on costs in every area. We reduced the bonus last year.

But the workers did not understand our problems and resorted to an agitation.”

He said: “We had appointed these workers as unskilled and trained them. And now, instead of co-operating with us in these difficult times they are making big demands.”