Jeypore: Change in salary and service conditions of workers has posed a fresh challenge to the recommencement of production at Jeypore paper mill, a report said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, all preparations for revival of the paper mill have reached the final leg. The Sewa Paper Mills, initially owned by Ballarpur Industries Ltd. (BIL), was started in 1984 and was closed multiple times due to financial crisis.
Reports said the mill has been taken over by a Hyderabad-based firm Mother Earth Resources Private Limited. Due to the closure of the mill, at least 1,500 regular and contractual workers of the paper mill were rendered jobless.
Many workers even allegedly died due to joblessness stress and Covid-19. The new management, instead of paying the full salary, is paying some advance to the workers.
It is proposing to pay the minimum wages as declared by the government if the workers go for overtime. The workers, labourers and trade unions are vehemently opposing this proposal.
They have refused to accept any cut in wages and salaries and warned that the management will be held responsible if the mill faces any problem during its operation.
Workers alleged that the new management is laying down fresh conditions which have led to unrest among the workers. The wages of the permanent workers and employees have been fixed as per a long-term tripartite agreement signed earlier.
The agreement was signed by workers, trade unions, management and the labour commissioner.
The Mother Earth firm is now claiming that it has taken a loan of Rs 150 crore from IndusInd Bank to purchase the paper mill and will make it operational as per business transfer agreement.
The company claims that out of the Rs 150 crore loan, it has given Rs 100 crore to Goutam Thapar, the proprietor of Bilt Graphic Paper Products Ltd (BGPPL).
However, it is not paying the arrears of workers and employees. The firm while taking the ownership of the paper mill has not made any discussions about the service conditions of workers and employees.
Moreover, the firm after taking the bank loan in June 2020 did not expedite the revival of the paper mill but is now forcing the workers to work for overtime when the bank officials come on a visit to the paper mill.
The workers and employees have claimed that once the mill becomes operational, work will not stop at any cost.
They claimed that there are not enough workers to work in the mill while the firm has also the scrapped the transport system to ferry the workers to their workplace inside the mill.
PNN