Dunlop suspends work at Sahaganj

Tyremaker Dunlop India on Saturday declared suspension of work at its Sahaganj unit in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.

A notice declaring the stop-work was put up on the factory gate early this morning. The notice said the company would have no liability to pay any wages to the workers during the period of suspension of operation. The Sahagunj unit employs about 900 workers.

A spokesperson for the company said the decision was taken since “despite all kinds of efforts, the law and order situation had not improved, and workers were not co-operative with the management in the transfer of raw materials, which would have generated cash for the payment of wages.”

There has been no production at the Sahagunj facility for the last one year, allegedly on grounds of financial constraints and high incidences of unlawful activity, including thefts, in the area.

After paying salaries and wages for nearly 10 months to its idle workforce, the management had issued a notice in August, indicating a delay in the payment of salaries. The company had tried to raise funds to pay wages, transferring the raw material inventory to another group company, Monatona Tyres, which makes two-wheelers in Maharashtra. However, the management could not transfer the raw materials in the wake a protest by the workers, leading to wages not being paid for two months.

Meanwhile, the workers demonstrated through the day in front of the factory gate, protesting against the suspension-of-work notice and asking for government intervention in the matter.

Pointing to the recent foreign acquisitions by Pawan Kumar Ruia and his decision to step down as chairman and director of Dunlop, former CPI (M) MP and president of CITU-led trade union at Sahagaunj, Shantashree Chatterjee, said, “Ruia does not seem to have any intention to run the company. In the name of shifting raw materials, they have started dismantling the machinery. All of us, including INTUC and INTTUC, will sit together and decide the next plan of action. We are appealing to the government to declare this suspension-of-work illegal under the Industrial Dispute Act.”

Describing the development as “unfortunate”, state labour minister, Purnendu Bose, said, “We will first go through the suspension-of-work notice and decide on our course of action.”