CPI MP Binoy Viswam Writes To Raksha Mantri Again Regarding Post-Corporatization Problems Of 76000 Defence Civilian Employees Of 41 Ordnance Factories

CPI MP Binoy Viswam once again writes to Rajnath Singh to not ignore the post Corporatization problems and difficulties by the 76000 defence Civilian employees of 41 Ordnance Factories. He has brought to the Defence Minister’s notice that the employees have decided to go on agitation. www.indianpsu.com accessed a copy of the letter dated 19/11/21 written by Binoy Viswam MP which is reproduced below –

Shri Rajnath Singh ji,
Minister of Defence,
Government of India,
New Delhi

Respected Shri Rajnath Singh ji,
I write this letter to draw your attention to the escalating problems that have arisen as a result of the Government’s decision to corporatise the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and the arbitrary anti-workers’ decisions being made by the Management of the 7 new Corporations.

Despite widespread opposition to the Corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board, which employs over 70,000 people, the Union Government decided to push ahead with its plan. At the time, certain guarantees were made to the workers regarding their service conditions that were crystallised vide Office Memorandum dated 24.09.2021 Unfortunately, in the first two weeks of this move, the new Management has arbitrarily and unilaterally decided to alter the service conditions of the Employees including Working Hours, Overtime Allowances, Medical Benefits amongst many others.. Further, the coming to a standstill of various Industrial Relation Machineries such as JCM Councils at the Unit Level and Directorate level have resulted in the alienation of employees from the Department.

Despite multiple representations by the Employees Federations to the Secretary (DP) there has been no action taken in the matter. Consequential to the failure of the Secretary (DP) to respond to these representations, the workers have decided to being various agitations, starting with a protest from 08.12.2021 to 10.12.2021.

As the Department of Defence Production embarks on this new phase, it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the rights and interests of the Employees are protected in accordance with the guarantees made to them . These Employees have made exemplary contributions to the defence of India and they must not be treated in an unjust manner.

I, therefore, urge you to intervene in this matter and ensure that the management of the 7 Corporations do not take unilateral decisions that go against the assurances given to employees. I further urge you to ensure that representatives of the workers are consulted and their difficulties resolved at the earliest.