Production normal despite labour strike, says NCL

Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) on Thursday said that despite the labour disturbances, the production was normal at its power plants. A senior official from the company said, “Our daily target is to supply 49 million units per day, whereas we are supplying 53 million units, thanks to the systems, which are running.”

The only issue is related to the maintenance, the official added. Instead of three shifts, the maintenance system has to do five shifts with the available work force.

“We cannot violate the Supreme Court's order. Besides, the wage increase cannot be possible at this time, considering the tariffs, land price, operation and maintenance costs, which are not in our control.”

Today, 40 per cent of the turnover is going towards wages, which is the highest in the country. “Taking further burden will not help us to sustain,” the official said.

The net sales of NLC was around Rs 3,949 crore in 2010-11 and it has posted a total sales turnover of Rs 3,360.87 crore for the first nine months of 2011-12.

As per reports, around 14,000 contract workers at NLC are holding an indefinite strike from April 21, 2012, demanding regularisation of services in phases and implementation of “equal pay for equal work” system, among other demands.

However, the company on Thursday claimed that around 3,000 contract workers started reporting for duty yesterday.