Do Not Tinker With Service Conditions Of Ordnance Factory Employees, CPI MP Writes To Raksha Mantri

After the Corporatization of 41 Ordnance Factories from October 1, 2021, the management of the 7 Corporations have started issuing Instructions of their own without holding any discussion with the Trade Unions and in deviation of the Cabinet decision that the employees will continue to be Central Govt Employees with all benefits, rules and regulations applicable to them. Corporation’s have started issuing Circulars changing Service conditions in matters like working hours, piecework system etc. Against these unilateral decisions the Federations have represented to Secretary DDP to resist the Corporation’s from violating Cabinet decision. On the same issues, CPI MP Binoy Viswam has now written to Rajnath Singh Defence Minister. www.indianpsu.com accessed a copy of the Letter dated 19/10/21 addressed to Rajnath Singh written by Binoy Viswam MP which is published here for the benefit of our readers :-

To
Shri Rajnath Singh ji,
Minister of Defence,
Government of India, Date: 19.10.2021
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 and these have been crystallised vide Office Memorandum dated 24.09.2021. In particular, paragraph 5 states “till such time the employees remain on deemed deputation to the new 7 Corporations, they shall continue to be subject to all the extant rules, regulations and orders as are applicable to the Central Govt. Employees including related to their pay scales, allowances, leave, medical facilities career progression and other service conditions”.

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. Despite multiple representations by the Employees Federations to the Secretary (DP) there has been no action taken in the matter. 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.

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 the above-mentioned Industrial Relation Machineries are activated at the earliest so as to provide a platform for employees to share their grievances.

Yours sincerely

Binoy Viswam

Leader of CPI Parliamentary Party &
Secretary, National Council