Govt flexes muscles, refuses to accede to demands.
Within hours of the government cracking down on them, ordering arrests and calling in the Army, the oil PSU executives gave in this evening and called off their three-day-old strike, which had crippled fuel supplies and affected power generation in the country.
“Everything will be normal by tomorrow,” Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said, giving relief to millions of commuters, who were starved of fuel due to a majority of petrol pumps and CNG fuelling stations going dry because of the agitation.
Some 55,000 executives from 13 government-owned oil companies — under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officers’ Association (OSOA) — began an indefinite strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.
Army was called in to manage loading and dispatches to petrol pumps as the government ordered arrests and dismissals of officers keeping off work. The move cracked OSOA, with Bharat Petroleum, the second largest retailer, walking out of the agitation instantly.
With 67 executives of the ONGC and Indian Oil already terminated and more lists being drawn, the other constituents of OSOA in bits and pieces withdrew from the agitation that had also delayed domestic and international flights.
OSOA was unhappy with the hike in salaries approved by the government and brought key refineries and oil and gas fields to a grinding halt.
OSOA President Amit Kumar, who had been in hiding since the strike began on January 7, stated that OSOA withdrew the strike late this evening on assurances given by Deora for considering their demands at a meeting with him last night.
But Deora countered this, saying no assurance had been given and OSOA demands would be considered by a committee of ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram.
“We have not yet worked out the loss estimates of the strike,” Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey said.
“As many as 138 CNG stations would be fully functional by tonight,” he added.
Two-thirds of the petrol pumps across the country ran dry as refineries were shut down. Gas-based power generation was hit, fertiliser production was down and flights were delayed as the oil executives stayed away from work despite invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) by many states.
After negotiations, which went on till late Thursday, the government decided that there was no scope for any further negotiation.
The officers said that their demands — chiefly one of wage hike — should be acceded to immediately rather than within the 30 days that the Group of Ministers (headed by the home minister) promised. OSOA says that the real average wage hike has just been 17 per cent rather than the 55-149 per cent claimed by the government.
“Our demand is that we should be given a hike of 32.5 per cent,” said a senior ONGC employee from Gujarat. The other demands include pay revision every five years instead of 10 years.
“We have no scope for any discussion. There is no demand to negotiate. This is absolute unreasonable obstinacy,” said Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman Sarthak Behuria earlier in the day.
The company runs about half of the 37,000 fuel retail pumps in the country as well as some of the key refineries like Mathura and Panipat. It has estimated the loss from the strike at about Rs 30 crore per day.
The oil companies have declared Saturday and Sunday as full working days to compensate for the crores of rupees of losses that the strike has caused.
The oil officers are getting a gross salary of Rs 1-3 lakh each after the pay revision, in addition to various special allowances and are among the “privileged sections of society. Such a behaviour is unacceptable,” said a statement from the oil ministry.
Mahanagar Gas (MGL) resumed supply to a few of its compressed natural gas (CNG) stations with additional supply of gas from ONGC. The company was able to start around 43 CNG outlets by Friday evening. There are about 132 CNG stations in Mumbai.
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