Workers fight to keep BGML open

By Mukund Padmanabhan

KOLAR GOLD FIELDS, FEB. 12. Time is running out for the 4,000 or so employees who worked in the gold mines at Kolar. As they make their last ditch stand to save their company, the fate of the Bharat Gold Mines Limited is likely to be conclusively settled by the end of this month.

With the Union Government and the management of the public sector undertaking determined to close the 122-year-old company, the future of the workforce and the gold-laden mines hangs on the judiciary. Unless the Karnataka High Court treats the slew of petitions before it in a sympathetic manner, the struggle to save Kolar may be forced to an abrupt end. Says Mr. K. M. Divakaran, general-secretary of the officers association: ``By March 1, we should know whether or not it's all over.''

If matters have suddenly come to a head, it is because of an unexpected twist. On January 29 this year, the Union Ministry of Labour issued an order stating that BGML could be closed on March 1. The order was issued under Section 25 (O) of the Industrial Disputes Act and in response to a letter from the BGML management seeking closure.

The Ministry's order caught the unions unawares for more than one reason. To begin with, the process of closing the loss-making BGML had already been initiated through other (and more familiar) channels. On June 12 last year, the Bureau of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had recommended closure. An appeal by the unions before the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR) resulted in the BIFR decision being upheld.

This meant that a process of closure and liquidation, via a process governed by court, was already set in motion. So why attempt to shortcut this process by attempting closure via the Industrial Disputes Act? The unions were all the more surprised since the Section 25 (O) route has rarely, if ever, been used to close down a public sector undertaking in similar circumstances - namely, where parallel proceedings for closure are on and a substantial workforce still remains on the payroll. Perhaps not altogether surprisingly, the unions, which have legally challenged the order, regard this as a cunning and shrewd move to attenuate the liquidation procedure.

Ever since the BGML was earmarked for closure, the unions have collected a formidable body of evidence to show why (unlike some other public sector undertakings) it can be a viable commercial enterprise. The question, however, is whether anybody is listening.

Three major petitions are before the Karnataka High Court at the moment. They challenge the legality of the order under Section 25 (O), contest the validity of the BIFR/AAIFR direction that the company be wound up and seek revisions in a

recently-formulated voluntary separation scheme (VSS). Another writ has been filed on the ground that closure is against the public interest.

The unions and activists believe that the BGML has been a victim of discriminatory and shortsighted Governmental policy and that it can be made self-sufficient and profitable with a little Government support. The view that the BGML was forced into sickness and has the potential to be revived has found independent support.

In 1985, a report by a former bureaucrat held that the company would have been profitable if it was not for a discriminatory pricing policy. A few years ago, the ICICI - the very organisation appointed by the BIFR to examine whether the company could be revived - submitted more than one report suggesting that BGML could be made viable with a little financial support. It was only after the Union Government formally declared that it would not support revival that the BIFR recommended that the company be shut down.

Against such a background, the question is whether the avenues for revival should have been more seriously explored before declaring BGML an incurable economic casualty.

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Section  : National
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