KOCHI: The day-long protest by contract workers at the Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) on Wednesday ended amicably after the company agreed to employ workers from the unions. The protest began after FACT entered into a contract with an agency for manpower supply. However, the employees deputed by the agency were prevented from joining work by the contract workers’ unions. Following the protest, the FACT authorities held a meeting with the union leaders and the officials of the manpower supply agency.
“It was agreed to take 80% workers from the unions and the remaining 20% from the agency. The contractor also agreed to pay `19,500 monthly to the workers including Sunday wage benefits,” said CF Ashraf, a union member at FACT. A statement from FACT said: “The contract workers’ unions demanded that only workers nominated by them should be engaged by the contractor. The demands of the unions for higher wages will affect the company’s profitability to a large extent.” Ashraf said the contractors were assigning migrant workers for the job at very low wages.