Employees of the state-run Hindustan Paper Corporation have gone for a sit-in demonstration at the company’s headquarters in Kollkata demanding payment of wages.
Around 100 employees – that include 60 permanent staff and 40 others across apprentice, casual and contractual categories – have been demonstrating against non-payment of salaries for the past six months.
About 1,500-1,600 employees of the company, across two mills/units in Assam - Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill – and several sales offices of Hindustan Paper have been affected.
According to employee bodies – Hindustan Paper Employees' Association and Hindustan Corporation Officers and Supervisors' Association – the Cachar unit was closed since April 2015, while Nagaon unit was closed in 2017. While salaries have been due at Cachar since September, in Nagaon salaries were stopped from December onwards.
“PF dues (for retired employees) are around Rs 150 crore; while vendor dues stand at around Rs 350 crore. Vendor dues have been pending for two to three years now. Now, employees’ salary has also been stopped. We hear that the government will opt for privatisation,” Abhibhushan Patra, General Secretary, Hindustan Paper Employees' Association said.
In April this year, employees had demonstrated against non-payment of wages.
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