Burnpur, West Bengal: Amarendu Prakash, Chairman (CMD) of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), visited the SAIL IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur on Saturday. After inspecting various units of the plant in the morning, he held a meeting with representatives of the five recognised trade unions of ISP. The union leaders welcomed the SAIL Chairman during the interaction.
During the meeting, Prakash responded to several questions raised by union leaders and listened to their demands. He emphasized that the company belongs not to any individual but to everyone collectively. “We are not running this plant to pocket profits or for business motives. Whatever happens in the company is transparent,” he told them.
The Chairman stressed the need to focus on modernization and expansion projects and sought cooperation from all stakeholders. He assured the unions that employee benefits would not be reduced. As profits grow, the expenditure on employee welfare, hospitals, education and safety will also increase, he added. However, he did not comment on the privatization of SAIL hospitals, only assuring that no hasty decisions would be taken.
Union leaders from INTUC, CITU, HMS, AITUC and BMS raised issues including pending salaries, reduction of contract workers, rising accidents, housing shortages, and the condition of schools and hospitals. They pointed out that production has increased but the workforce has decreased, and reducing contract workers by 20 percent is putting additional pressure on existing employees.
INTUC president Harjeet Singh said that while modernization of the ISP is underway and unions will cooperate, workers have not received their pending wages for 39 months. Production incentives and wage revision are also overdue. Construction of new quarters and improvement of hospital facilities have not started, while many schools are being privatized, he added. These issues were discussed in detail during the meeting.
Present at the meeting were Surajit Mishra (DIC, SAIL-ISP), UP Singh (ED-HR), Bipul Majhi (INTUC), Souren Chattopadhyay and Pratik Gupta (CITU), Sanjit Prasad (BMS), RN Singh (AITUC), and Mumtaz Ahmed (HMS), among others.