Labour trouble at Ambazari Ordnance Factory

Ambazari Ordnance Factory, which makes 125 mm and 81 mm shells, apart from the the 155 mm shells used by for Bofors Howitzers is reportedly reeling under labour unrest. Sources say, this is perhaps the worst-ever labour crisis in a defence establishment where such incidents are rare.

The tiff between the workers and the management at the ordnance factory has resulted in production loss of 30 to 40 per cent in the past fortnight. The protest by the workers is unique. They have stopped working overtime to register their opposition to the mode of calculation of the extra hours they were putting in.

The nature of work at the factory demands that workers put in extra hours if required to do so and finish the job on hand. The normal eight-hour shift duty is being adhered to, but the extra one or two hours that they were earlier putting in, on instructions from the management, is now not being done.

They are also protesting the stoppage of the piece-profit benefit system - an incentive system where reward is calculated on the number of pieces produced. About 2000 workers have joined the agitation.

Union members claimed that the agitation has directly impacted production and if it continues for another fortnight or so, the losses would be even higher. A senior official also confirmed that the strike was affecting production.

The official was also critical of the employees working in shifts. He charged them of deliberately bringing down productivity levels. Union members however, rejected the allegation.

The agitating workers are from departments like fuse shop, shell machine, and cartridge case shop (CCS). Half of the CCS workers have not joined the agitation, but the entire work force in the other two sections is avoiding working over time. These include machine operators and unskilled workers.

Sources said that talks between the workers and the management are on and the matter is expected to be resolved in a weeks' time.