Karnataka - Bangalore

Lockout declared at MTR Foods

Staff Reporter

Production wastage, go-slow tactics and breach of agreement cited as reasons

WITHOUT WORK: Employees at the unit of MTR Foods Ltd., where a lockout has been declared. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: The production of packaged food items at MTR Foods Ltd, one of the leading brands in the country, came to a halt from the midnight of Saturday following a lockout declared by the management.

Night shift employees were taken by surprise when a few top management executives came to the factory premises in Bommasandra Industrial Area on the outskirts of Bangalore around 11.45 p.m. on Friday and asked them to stop working.

Notices declaring lockout were pasted on the gates, shutters downed and the employees asked to leave. The lockout notice cites production wastage, go-slow tactics and breach of agreement as the reasons.

The two plants in Bommasandra Industrial Estate, which commenced operations in 1991, has 12 divisions that includes ready-to-eat and frozen foods, spices, vermicelli, pickles, ice-cream and ice-cream cones, and printing and packaging. Over 800 employees work in the MTR Foods in Bommasandra units.

Though some office-bearers of the union rushed to the industrial area after being intimated by their colleagues in the early hours of Saturday, a large number of employees were not aware of the lockout and many, who were on the first shift, arrived by public transport bemused by the fact that the company bus did not turn up.

C.K. Ravindra, who has been working since the units were commissioned, told The Hindu, "We took the BMTC bus thinking that the company bus had broken down. Only after arriving at the unit did we know about the lockout."

Even in the evening, the 40-odd employees who were on the night shift were still inside the premises in their uniforms as the gates had been locked.

"Why should we jump over the compound wall when we have not committed any wrong? Let them come and open the gates and only then we will come out," said one of them, Manjunath.

Wage dispute

It is learnt that the problem at MTR Foods began after the employees received their salary slip on May 1. They were expecting a huge hike, and a nominal hike based on the previous wage agreement did not satisfy them. Since then, they stopped doing overtime.

Employees had been demanding better pay after reports emerged that the company would be taken over by the Norwegian company Orkala for Rs. 450 crore. Prasanna Kumar, an employee, said, "Managing Director P. Sadananda Maiya, who addressed a gate meeting in the last week of February, had assured us that our salaries would be hiked. He had also made it clear that Orkala was only picking up a stake in the company. Even after eight to ten years of service, some of us are getting just around Rs. 6,000. With expenses in Bangalore mounting, salary levels are very low. How can we provide good education to our children?"

In a press release, Mr. Maiya said the go-slow tactics by the workers after May 1 had resulted in losses close to Rs. 2 crore to the company given the perishable nature of food commodities. He said neither the employees nor the trade union had placed a charter of demands before the management before they adopted go-slow tactics. The wage agreement signed in 2005 is valid up to September 30 2008, and the company has been paying salary and allowances well above the statutory limit, he said, adding that he was ready for talks.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu