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The state labour department has asked the authorities of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed Odisha Sponge Iron & Steel Ltd (OSISL) to resume operations.
OSISL, the first sponge iron factory to be set up in the country, has been shut down since October 14 last year after the company management declared a lockout terming the workers strike ‘illegal’. The workers had staged a stir, demanding incentives and bonus.
“Keeping in view the workers’ interest, the state labour and ESI (employees’ state insurance) department referred the matter to the industrial tribunal-Bhubaneswar. Accordingly, OSISL authorities have been instructed to restart operations through an order dated March 4, 2013,” steel & mines minister Rajani Kant Singh informed the state assembly in a written reply.
The minister said, the workers of OSISL had staged stir in front of the plant on October 12 last year, demanding bonus of Rs 30,000 and ex-gratia. Two days later, on October 14, the company announced a lock-out at the plant.
The sponge iron factory engages 598 regular employees besides 400 contractual workers. The workers allege that the company was not paying bonus, ex-gratia and other benefits to them and due to mismanagement, the oldest sponge plant in the state was in dire straits. The sponge iron factory was battling raw material crunch since it had no raw material linkages. OSISL operates a 0.1 million tonne per annum (mtpa) sponge iron plant using non-coking coal as a reluctant, at Palaspanga, 20 km from Keonjhar.
In 1994-95, the company implemented a project with a capacity of 60,000 tpa to manufacture billets using its own sponge iron. Incorporated in April 1979, OSISL was promoted in the joint sector by Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha (Ipicol) and Torsteel Research Foundation and its associates.
