Assam: Workers at AOD’s Digboi Gopaneri LPG plant resort to agitation

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DIGBOI: The CITU-affiliated Mineral Oil Workers Union engaged at Digboi Gopanari LPG Bottling Plant at Tinsukia’s Digboi on Thursday morning resorted to tool down agitations affecting the normalcy of the plant for two subsequent shifts.

The agitators, thronged in front of the main gate, alleged that the AOD-managed Gopanari bottling plant, in collusion with the contractor, has been adopting anti-workers policy violating the provisions of the Factory and Labour Laws arbitrarily.

Jintu Borah, former secretary of the union, alleged that the management of the plant arbitrarily imposed restrictions upon 68 contractual workers engaged in Holace Handling Unit to continue with their usual duty shifts.

“The contractor and the management, without prior and formal notice, have decided to engage inexperienced and semi-skilled workers hired from outside in lieu of the long-serving workers during their various leaves, one of the workers’ rightful claims,” said Borah. He further added that the permanent contractual workers serving longer than decades earlier were managing the jobs in one of the shifts as overtime in case of leaves of the fellow workers.

“But without any formal circular to this effect, the management was trying to hire outside semi-skilled workers at a cheaper rate, that too in a very hazardous plant within the prohibited zone, imposing the general shift duty for the workers, thus securing scopes for engaging the hired semi-skilled labour to enhance their profit margin,” alleged the disgruntled workers.

“Moreover, engaging the inexperienced workers in a highly sensible and hazardous plant has raised pertinent questions on the safety rules of the plant,” the panicked workers shared.

There are 125 contractual workers in various sections of the plant while 99 of them were serving for more than 23 years, gaining abundant job experience thereby.

The workers, in the strongest possible words, condemned and denounced the anti-workers policy of the management and contractor, terming the act as malafide and prejudiced.

While responding to the queries of The Sentinel today afternoon, the Duliajan-based contractor of the firm P Phukan said that he had delegated the authority to one of his partners Medini Moran to oversee the workers’ affairs. “I cannot comment on the issue much as I am not well aware of the development there,” said the owner of the firm adding, “I just pay in aggregate the salary of the workers to Moran who further pays the workers.”

Meanwhile, timely intervention of Dibya Jyoti Dutta, Officer In-Charge, Digboi Police Station, averted any untoward situation thus dousing the heated situation in presence of Solah Kumrah, Chief Manager of the plant, and Partha Protim Das, the safety officer. Though temporary normalcy was restored, yet the workers said that they would drag the matter to the legal threshold for violating the factory and labour laws, thus bringing justice once and for all.

It is noteworthy that the modus operandi of the AOD-managed bottling plant has been under scanner for various reasons like security lapses, cylinder smuggling and black marketing, and undue collection of money at security gate, etc. over a period of time.

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