KASARAGOD: The employees of KEL-Electrical Machine Limited -- which was taken over by the state government -- are livid with the draft agreement the management is forcing them to sign to begin work. "It is better to end our lives than sign that agreement. It is a compilation of clauses designed to deceive the workers," said a senior worker affiliated to the Congress's INTUC.
V Ratnakaran, a leader of the CITU, the trade wing of the CPM, said the draft agreement ran contrary to assurances given by Industries Minister P Rajeeve. "We have called for an immediate meeting with the minister or the chairman and managing director (APM Mohammed Hanish) to renegotiate the terms of engagement. We don't want to discuss this with Shaji Varghese, who gave us this draft," he said.
Varghese is one of the directors of Kerala Electrical & Allied Engineering Co. Ltd (KEL), the parent company of KEL-EML. Employees said he was the government's point person to run the unit in Kasaragod and enjoyed the confidence of the minister.
But workers said Varghese started on the wrong foot. "The draft agreement is not a positive approach from the management," said Ratnakaran. Sample this: Employees will not raise any demand involving financial implications or enhancement of wages or allowances till the unit achieves operational profit for three consecutive years.
"We are workers. It is the management's responsibility to bring new orders, fund and turn around the company. But only workers have to forgo their salary hikes till the company posts profit for three years in a row. What if the company slips into the red for a year after two years of profit?" said the Congress leader.
Ratnakaran said the minister promised to clear the salary dues from January 2019 to March 2020, the period for which the employees worked. "But Varghese said the money will be released only if we sign the agreement. The management is out of sync with the government," he said.
The employees have not got their salaries after March 2020 either but then the unit was shut as part of the nationwide lockdown.
To be sure, the state government took control of the unit from BHEL on July 28, 2021, and on September 8, 2021, the chief minister announced a revival package of Rs 77 crore, which includes Rs 14 crore to clear salary and pension dues and gratuity.
On January 7, the state government released Rs 20 crore from the package, partly to clear the salary dues and partly to kick-start the reopening of the unit. "But after three weeks, the management has not yet given any money to the employees," said INTUC's district president PG Dev.
The trade unions, cutting across party affiliations, have called for an all-India strike against the anti-worker policies of the central government. "It is reprehensible that the LDF-run state government is pushing such anti-workers policies in one of its units when we are together going to protest against the Centre's anti-worker policies," he said.
Apart from no salary hike, the draft agreement said from April 2020, employees will not be entitled to any salary or benefit till the company starts its operations. But employees said that several workers are engaged in the maintenance of the machinery.
An inordinate delay in reopening the unit is putting the workers in financial hardship.
But the draft agreement said: Considering the request of the unions, employees will be paid a relief package of 25 per cent of their monthly emoluments from April 2020 purely on humanitarian consideration. "However, this payment would not be counted as salary for any statutory dues like PF or ESI," it read.
Workers said these wordings went against human rights. Employees are not happy with the way the management is pushing the retirement age on them.
The draft agreement said employees would be treated as superannuated if they cross 58 years between July 28, 2021 -- the day the state government took over the unit -- and the reopening of the unit. They will be eligible for relief package only till their date of attaining 58 years.
When the unit was a subsidiary of the Central PSU BHEL, the retirement age was 60 years. On Monday, an employee retired after turning 60 years old. "He was part of the team repairing the machines. Is the state government going to deny him his salary and retirement benefits?" said a worker.
Since 2019, many workers have retired and some have succumbed to illness, said Dev of the INTUC. "They retired and died without getting any benefits. The government should not turn a blind eye to their plight," he said.
The employees of KEL-EML pointed out another hidden dagger in the draft. It reads: "Salary, wages, allowances, bonus and any other financial and non-financial benefits of KEL-EML employees will be totally independent and need not have parity with that of any other unit of KEL or any other company."
Workers said that the new management is scripting another disaster for the unit by discriminating against them.