Rourkela: Hundreds of dissident labourers and employees of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) staged sit-ins in front of the gates of the plant Wednesday morning at around 5.00am, a source said.
According to the source, under the banners of several labour unions, they have been on a 24-hour agitation seeking an early adoption of their eight-point charter of demands including revision of wages.
With the support of most of the trade unions, the dissidents had been protesting at Birsa Munda Square in Rourkela Tuesday. The agitation assumed larger proportions and a huge congregation of the RSP labourers and employees got down to the streets at SAIL Square, Hirakud Square as well as Fertilizer Gate here, the source added.
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“We demand the payment of arrears, implementation of nine per cent pension, 15 per cent growth in minimum guaranteed benefit (MGB) on basic pay, perks and other benefits with withdrawal of action against the laid off labourers. Our demands include job to one of the family members of employees who died of Covid-19,’ an agitator stated.
Wage agreement of the workers is revised once in every five years. The management has failed this time in finalising wage revision which irked the labourers. The agitation will be intensified further if RSP authorities turn deaf ears to our demands, the protestor added.
Notably, the cease work stir has severely hit the RSP’s production, a senior official expressed requesting assurance of anonymity.
PNN