Defence Civilian Employees Decide To Boycott The Foundation Day Of 7 Ordnance Factory DPSUs

It is going to be a year by September, 2022 after the Government splitted the 41 Ordnance Factories into 7 Corporations. One of the 7 Corporations decided to celebrate its foundation day on 14.08.2022. The AVNL Avadi, Chennai has asked the employees to participate in foundation day celebrations by writing essays, designing logo, writing theme on the corporation. The Federations of the Defence Civilian Employees have become furious after seeing this Circular issued by AVNL.

The AIDEF, BPMS and CDRA the Federations of Ordnance Factory employees have decided to boycott the foundation day celebration of the 7 Corporations since they are not the employees of these Corporations and that the Government has failed in implementing its assurances for protecting the service conditions and welfare of the employees. They have issued a joint Circular in which they have appealed to the employees that they should not participate in the foundation day celebrations of the 7 DPSUs since so far the employees are concerned there is nothing to celebrate since they are in a miserable condition after the Corporatization.

www.indianpsu.com accessed a copy of the joint Circular issued by AIDEF, BPMS and CDRA today. The contents of the same is reproduced for the benefit of our viewers.

JOINT CIRCULAR

APPEAL TO THE EMPLOYEES OF 41 ORDNANCE FACTORIES NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS OF THE 7 CORPORATIONS.

It has been brought to our notice that the Armoured Vehicle Nigam Limited has directed the Ordnance Factories under its control to celebrate the Foundation Day on 14/08/2022, the day when it was incorporated as a DPSU. In this regard the Employees are asked to participate in Essay competitions, Foundation day theme, Foundation Day Logo, Photography contest etc., as a part of the celebrations. It is expected that the other 6 Corporations may also issue similar instruction. All of you are aware that 99.9% of the employees of Ordnance Factories have rejected Corporatisation of Ordnance Factories in a joint referendum held in the Ordnance Factories.

It is astonishing that when the very formation of these 7 PSUs is under scrutiny by the Judiciary, most of the major assurances given to the Federations and CDRA by the Government relating to the service conditions etc., of the employees having been put aside, with no clarity in attending to many of the burning issues of the employees in the new entity, what is there to celebrate such a non-event. Some of the burning issues of the employees are given below:

1) Piece work correlation in 7th CPC pay scale is not processed for issuing Government orders.
2) Enhancement of the weekly working hours to 48 hrs. per week by two Corporations in violation of the Cabinet decision and the commitment given before the Hon’ble High Court.
3) Miserable reduction in the wages of employees due to stoppage of overtime working without any compensation.
4) No guaranteed workload for majority of the Ordnance Factories, especially in the Factories under TCL, IOL, Yantra India and AWEIL.
5) Complete stoppage of compassionate appointments to the wards of the deceased and medically boarded out employees.
6) Stoppage of admission in 1st std in the Ordnance Factory Schools including for the children and grand children of the employees and proposal to hand over the schools to other agencies.
7) Non processing of the transfer applications of the employees.
8) Undue delay in revising the intergrade ratio for Artisan Staff (Tradesman).
9) Non-consideration of the joint proposal given by the UFOE to remain us Central Government Employees/Defence Civilian employees on deemed deputation till superannuation from service.
10) Non-settlement of SRO amendments and Cadre review of NIEs, NGOs and Group-B Gazetted Officers.
11) Proposal to hand over Ordnance Factory Hospitals to State Governments/other agencies.
12) Short supply of medicines in the Ordnance Factory Hospitals.
13) Transfer of employees of all categories in a vindictive manner without adopting any policy.
14) No regular meetings with the Federations and CDRA at the level of DDP for discussing and settling the employees issues.
15) Undue delay in the final settlement of GPF and payment of terminal benefits to the retired/retiring employees.
16) Undue delay in holding LDCE examination to Chargeman, JWM & JWM(SG) and also promotion of JWM(SG) to AWM.
17)Non-filling up of posts lying vacant in the Ordnance Factories.

The above are only few examples.

In this situation when the entire workforce of the 41 Ordnance Factories is dissatisfied with the style and functioning of the 7 Corporations, what is there for the employees to celebrate the so called Foundation Day. Therefore we would request the employees in general and members of all our affiliated Unions and Associations of CDRA in the Ordnance Factories not to participate in any of the events related to the Foundation Day celebrations of the PSUs, which is not only against our principled stand against Corporatisation of Ordnance Factories, but also not in the interest of the employees in any way. We should not forget that we are not the employees of the Corporations, we are only on deemed deputation to these Corporations and we have also decided that we will not opt to join the Corporations and that we will continue to remain as Central Government Employees/Defence Civilian Employees till superannuation.

We will continue to celebrate OF Day in a grand manner on the 18th of March every year and not the Foundation Day of the 7 Corporations. You are also requested to publish the contents of this Circular through pamphlets to inform and educate the employees.