Hundreds of contract labourers locked the main gate of the Essar Steel project site in Paradip on Friday, demanding the fulfillment of their long-standing, eight-point charter of demands. These include payment of higher wages as well as proper maintenance of records pertaining to gratuity and employees provident fund (EPF) accounts, among others. The locking of the main gate has affected the company’s construction work.

“Negotiations are going on to sort out the various issues through discussions with the leaders of the Manch. Construction work has been affected due to the labour unrest. Police forces have been deployed at the Essar plant site to avert any law and order problem,” an official of Essar Steel said.

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The labourers stated today that, even after five months of the commitment, the company was yet to fulfil their demands and had, instead, threatened to terminate them if they were resort to an agitation on the issue.

Essar Labourers Surkhya Manch Secretary Tofan Singh said: “The company issued gate passes to labourers without the name of the company and other such information. After the agitation, the company returned them and has not yet issued any fresh passes.”

Singh further claimed that contractors had been paid less wages than the scheduled rate and labourers engaged in construction work were living in a pathetic condition. “Gratuity and EPF accounts have not been properly maintained and labourers are a harassed lot. Moreover, there are no facilities for even drinking water for the labourers,” he added.

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