The CITU affiliated to Communist Party of India
(Marxist) has urged the State Government to bail out the Krishnagiri
District Cooperative Spinning Mill in Uthangarai and protect the
interest of employees.
In a statement issued here on
Friday, party district secretary G. Sekar stated that maladministration
pushed the mill to financial crunch. The management failed to remit the
Provident Fund amount deducted from the employees for over
one-and-a-half years. Hence, the amount due had increased to over Rs.
1.5 crore.
After several warnings, the Employees'
Provident Fund Organisation had issued an announcement in newspapers to
auction the properties of the mill recently. This had created a fear
among the employees that their livelihood was in question.
Mr.
Sekar alleged that this might be the handiwork of the management to
threaten the employees not to press their demand for hike in salary.
The
management was not showing any interest in improving the production and
marketing. Cooptex was also not interested to procure the yarn produced
by the mill in time affecting the funds' flow.
Despite
various petitions submitted to the Secretary, Handlooms Department, by
CITU leaders P.M. Kumar, G. Sekar and C. Balathandayutham, no action had
been taken against the erring officials.
The salary
of the employees, who had finished 25 years, could not touch even Rs.
10,000. The management failed to disburse the terminal benefits to 27
employees.
The employees got only Rs. 500 as hike
through negotiations for the past 10 years, where as the administrative
staff were getting salary on a par with that of the government
employees, he alleged.
During the debate on demands
for textiles and handloom sector, the government also failed to make any
announcement regarding bailing out of the Uthangarai mill. Hence, the
CITU demanded that the government appoint a monitoring committee for
effective functioning of the management.
It also urged the government to bail out the mill by bearing the cost due to the EPFO.
