Union stages sit-in at residence of Videocon chairman

Members of the Videocon Group Employees Union (VGEU) staged a sit-in near the house of Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot here on Thursday morning, demanding payment of unpaid salaries.

The company, however, claimed that VEGU did not represent its workers.

The police retained the employees in the morning but they were released by the afternoon. They were detained as they had not sought police permission for the protest.

Around 300 employees have been on a chain sit-in since the past 74 days at the labor commissioner's office here demanding their salaries which have not been paid for over year now.

Union president Gajanan Khandare told PTI that neither Venugopal Dhoot nor Rajya Sabha member Rajkumar Dhoot came to accept the memorandum of the distressed workers this morning.

He said both the state and Central governments are also not taking any action against the erring management.

The protesting employees called for the Dhoots' arrest. "We want to know when we will get justice, but instead of that, we were apprehended and taken to the police station," Khandare said.

A local police official Sambhaji Pawar said they had detained 72 employees from the Gulmandi area where they were protesting and were released after completing the formalities.

The Videocon group comprising 13 operating companies, is in bankruptcy tribunal since mid-last year and a resolution is pending. The group companies owe over Rs 1 lakh crore to the banks.

A top official of Videocon Industries Limited (VIL) said VGEU was not associated with any of the VIL companies.

VIL chief executive Jyoti Shekhar said the salaries of the approved Union workers was being paid through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

VEGU had nothing to do with the company, she said.