LML staff demand salary

THE ABRUPT closure of automobile major LML has enraged its employees. Thousand of employees staged a demonstration at the factory gates when the management denied to pay them their pending salary. The management had promised to pay off the employees? dues on Monday. The employees have not received their salaries for the last two months.

Dy-Labour chief arranges tripartite meeting on March 1

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THE ABRUPT closure of automobile major LML has enraged its employees. Thousand of employees staged a demonstration at the factory gates when the management denied to pay them their pending salary. The management had promised to pay off the employees’ dues on Monday. The employees have not received their salaries for the last two months.

On Monday, when agitated employees tried to break open the main gate, a large contingent of private security personnel blocked their entry into the factory premises. According to agitators, a large contingent of PAC was also present on the factory campus.

It was only when the employees refused to go back and staged a sit-in that factory manager KP Tripathi turned up to meet them. However, he refused to disburse salaries and instead offered a sum of Rs 1200 to each employee as salary advance.

The agitated employees then demanded that a representative of the management hold talks with them. Tripathi refused to accept the demand.

Then the enraged employees went to the labour commissioner’s office raising anti-management slogans. Labour commissioner Sharda Prasad and additional labour commissioner CL Maurya were not present. As a last resort, the employees staged a sit-in outside the office of deputy labour commissioner SP Gupta. Gupta tried to pacify the agitators and suggested that as LML did not have a union, a committee should be formed to hold talks with him.

Later, the deputy labour commissioner held a telephonic conversation with the LML management. Gupta arranged a tripartite meeting on March 1 at the labour commissioner’s office.

Later, the employees went to meet the district magistrate. There they were stopped by security personnel. The employees then staged a demonstration. A memorandum addressed to DM Deepak Kumar was handed over to a senior official.

In the memorandum, they expressed fears that the LML management would harass those employees who had been selected to represent them. They demanded security for them.