Neyveli Lignite Corporation today said two unions spearheading the ongoing 25-day indefinite strike by contract workers were misleading them by portraying a wrong picture of their demands on regularisation and equal pay for equal work.

The NLC General Manager (Human Resources), Mr M. Maheshwaran, told PTI that the unions had breached the previous two agreements signed in 2008 and 2010 that barred them from raising any fresh demands having financial implications till 2015.

He claimed 3,000 contract workers started reporting for duty yesterday. This was in addition to the 1,000 workers who were already at work and not affiliated to any union, he said.

Mr M. Sekar, District Secretary of AITUC, said the workers would not rejoin duty till their services were regularised. As a first step, about 5,000 senior contract workers should be regularised and the others in future, he said.

The NLC Public Relations Officer, Mr Sridhar said power generation from the three thermal units today was near normal at 2400 MW against the full capacity of 2490 MW. Lignite production was not affected and about 60,000 tonnes was excavated from the mines, he said.

The indefinite strike by the contract workers entered the 27th day today over their demand for regularisation of services in a phased manner and implementation of the ‘equal pay for equal work’ norm, among other things.

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