CHENNAI/THANJAVUR: Over 400 Tasmac shops remained shut in six districts, including Thanjavur, Ranipet, and Vellore, on Friday, according to AITUC, as the employees staged a protest demanding additional staff to handle the bottles as part of the buy-back scheme.
Tasmac officials, however, claimed that the shops were not completely closed, and the issue was resolved after temporary interventions.
Speaking to TNIE on condition of anonymity, an employee working at a Tasmac outlet in Chennai said that they are not against selling liquor at the maximum retail price (MRP), but wanted the government to address the grassroots-level issues.
“Until now they have not given additional staff or separate staff for the empty bottle buy-back scheme, which includes stickering the bottles to collect them and paying Rs 10 per bottle (deposit money) to customers. For this, if we deploy people on our own, it incurs additional expense, and the government has to cover that,” the Tasmac employee said.
The employees also condemned the suspension of over 200 employees across the state on various charges.
“If the state government takes care of the shop expenses, why would an employee collect additional money for liquor?” a Tasmac employee asked, adding that they are protesting by shutting the shop to avoid additional work and additional money collected for that work.
When asked about it, a senior official in Tasmac said that they have floated a tender to identify a vendor to collect the buy-back bottles and it would be finalised by early October.
“In the last two days, there have been protests at various places, and their main demand is that the employees should not be suspended immediately. We are intervening at the district level and holding talks through the district managers and taking action on a case-to-case basis,” the official told TNIE.
In Thanjavur district, the employees downed shutters of 130 liquor outlets and staged a sit-in in front of Tasmac district manager’s office, demanding complete privatisation of the buy-back scheme and reinstatement of nine employees placed under suspension.
The protesting staff pointed out that the employees of the outlets have to pay rent for the space to store the bottles bought back from the customers. They also have to pay wages, out of their own pocket, to the people engaged in pasting stickers and buying back the bottles.
“Without privatising the scheme, the Tasmac management suspended employees for allegedly collecting amounts over and above the MRP,” a staff member who participated in the protest said.
The protesters were also demanding to fill vacancies and stop slapping fines on the staff in the name of inspections. Their other demands included Tasmac bearing the cost of cartons and bottles damaged in transit instead of deducting the amount from staff salary.
A similar protest was also held in Tiruvarur.
