The Hindu : Business : Dunlop wage deal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 27, 2006

Business

Business

Dunlop wage deal — a sign of the times?

Indrani Dutta

Unions had to make sacrifices to ensure reopening

KOLKATA: It is not every day that a labour leader admits to having conceded ground to the management while entering into an agreement. But that is just what happened in the case of the `agreement' entered into by the new promoters of Dunlop India Ltd (DIL) and the two trade unions, the CITU and the INTUC.

Seven weeks after the Ruias bought over DIL, the two unions at the unit here and the DIL management, reached an `understanding' this week on the broad parameters that would govern the actual agreement which is expected to be signed by February 15 for the 2,700 workers at the company's mother unit at Sahagunj in Hooghly district. The `agreement', which was described by the management as an MoU, was actually the minutes of the meeting held at the state secretariat and is expected to have a bearing on the ongoing negotiations on the Ambattur (Chennai) unit.

The pact covered three angles, Mr. Ruia said. Current wages which would be paid once Sahagunj unit resumes work, past dues and ERS payments. As per the understanding, salary has been fixed at the December 2000 level of Rs. 5,000, which would continue for five years with a raise of Rs. 100 in the second year.

There would be increases at the rate of 10 per cent of the basic pay thereafter.

Regarding arrears, Rs. 30,000 would be paid to each worker, on a pro rata basis with an initial payment of Rs. 5,000 by April 30, 2006. (The unit closed down in February 1998, and reopened after a few months, only to be shut down again in August 2000.)

Regarding the ERS (early retirement scheme), a payout of Rs. 1.2 lakh (apart from statutory payments) has been decided, although the exact extent of downsizing is still tentative — between 1,000 and 1,500. "Even the unions feel that, if the company has to run, it cannot do so with the existing manpower strength," says DIL's new promoter, adding that he will appoint an agency to sort out various records (including those of employees) damaged by a fire a few years ago.

The remaining workers — of the 4,000 workers on the rolls in 2000, some have died and some retired — of the former Chhabria-controlled company are not exactly raising a toast either to the new promoter or the conditions that their union leaders agreed to at the meeting held at the state secretariat. But for them the more pressing need is to get the unit reopened as soon as possible. Says Santasri Chatterjee, a senior CITU leader from the Hooghly belt and a CPI (M) MP now: "We had to make sacrifices in the larger interest of reopening the unit. The closed status of the plant limited our bargaining power," Mr. Chatterjee told The Hindu.

He was unwilling to comment as to whether understandings such as these are a harbinger of the changing times on the trade union front in West Bengal. He feels that these are rather instances of responsible trade unionism.

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