Workers Seek Part In Dunlop Hearing Petition Bifr

Dunlop workers at the company's Ambattur unit have written to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction to include them in the on-going hearings. They believe they will then be in a better position to fight for their dues.

The Madras High Court had in June dismissed a petition filed by the workers for payment of Rs 85 lakh due to them from the employees co-operative society.

The court held since the company was declared sick and referred to the BIFR for rehabilitation, such dues could not be decided by it and the BIFR was in the best position to adjudicate on the matter.

 

Although the Tamil Nadu government has declared the lock out at the Ambattur unit between October 1997 and February 1998 as illegal, it has led to no material benefits for the workers. Instead, the management has got a stay on the government order prohibiting the lock out.

The management claimed that since the closure of the unit was yet to be classified as a lock out, any order prohibiting a lock out cannot hold.

The Tamil Nadu government, by prohibiting a lock out at the Ambattur unit, had ensured that the workers got their wages from that day onwards although the unit was closed.

As per the government order for the period February 1998 to July 17, 1998, wages due to the workers were to be referred to an Industrial Disputes Tribunal. The stay obtained does not cover this portion.

For the prior period, October 1997 - February 1998, the workers are claiming wages under Section 33 (C) of the Industrial Disputes Act. This enables them to by-pass the labour courts as there is no dispute on the amount due from the company to the workers.