Southern States
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Kerala
'KRL salary matching best in the industry'
By Our Special Correspondent
KOCHI, DEC. 6. A two-day strike notice has been issued by the two trade unions of the Kochi Refineries Limited (KRL) from December 13. The KRL management has initiated disciplinary action against the agitators who had indulged in gheraoing the senior officers and disrupting the office administration on Tuesday.
Both the workers' unions, Cochin Refineries Employees Association and Cochin Refineries Workers Association, are on a path of agitation in connection with the negotiations for long-term settlement of salaries and benefits. The bone of contention is the unions' demand for an open-ended salary structure. Such a structure would lead to uninterrupted pay hike without any ceiling. The Management felt that it would take away the attraction of promotion by merit thereby leading to inefficiency and lack of productivity. Moreover, the officers of KRL, as also in other organisations, have a closed-ended salary scale, pointed out Mr. K.K. Jayan, deputy general manager of the company, in a press release here on Wednesday.
The management claimed that the unions were on the war path even as the company was offering attractive salary and benefits matching the best in the industry. According to the management offer, the lowest grade worker will get monthly emoluments of Rs. 8,865 as against the existing Rs. 5,021. The monthly maximum of the highest grade is Rs. 26,805 against the existing Rs. 15,339. The increase is more than 75 per cent, the release claimed.
Mr. Jayan said that these were besides a host of other tangible and intangible benefits and welfare measures made available to the workers. Such a labour-friendly package has been offered to the workers in spite of the uncertainties anticipated in the business environment, particularly in the backdrop of the complete opening-up of petroleum sector in the country shortly.
The company is taking all precautions to ensure that common people are not affected by the agitation, particularly regarding availability of all petroleum products in the State.
Reacting to certain allegations raised by the workers' unions, the management maintained that the proposal for capacity expansion has been deferred for the time being to review the demand for the future. The company had submitted a proposal for expansion-cum-modernisation project of the KRL from 7.5 million tonnes per annum to 13.5 MMTPA. State one approval was obtained from the Union Government. Before putting up for approval by the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs, the proposal was put up for views of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, which had acquired shares of the KRL from the Union Government.
As regards the power generation project, the management pointed out that it was envisaged to make use of the ashphaltenes from the capacity expansion project as the fuel for power generation plant. Since the six million tonnes capacity expansion project is delayed for reconfiguration, the power project will also be delayed.
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