No salaries for Vedanta's HZL staff from March '13

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, June 4, 2013: As uncertainty over the reopening of the Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), in which Vendata has nearly 65 per cent stake, continues, its staff here is struggling to make their both ends meet as they stopped receiving their salaries since March this year.

The HZL management stopped production at its smelter unit since last February and asked its employees to join their mining sites and various offices located in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uadaipur in Rajasthan or opt for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

While few joined their respective postings, majority of them stared  protests since then terming the transfer orders and  abrupt closing of the smelter as illegal. As the deadline for transfers ended on March 11, they have stopped receiving salaries.

This is contrary to the orders earlier issued by the union mines minister Dhinsha Patel on holding the transfers for time being and immediate disbursement of the salaries. The orders by Patel were issued after the intervention of local MP and union minister of state for commerce and industry, Dr D Purandgeswari’s intervention.

Later at a high level meeting held in the last week of March in Delhi in the presence of Dhinsha Patel and company representatives it was decided to constitute a technical committee to resolve the long pending issue.

But to the workers’ dismay the technical committee on which they have pinned many hopes was never appointed. It’s been more than 2 months that a technical committee was supposed to be appointed and submit its report.

The technical committee appointed by Patel will have one representative from trade union, local MLA, a district senior official and company representatives. The report is to be submitted in a month’s time.

At present there are around 220 employees who were protesting at the HZL gate since very long erecting a tent. Workers alleged that without any valid reason HZL, in which Vedanta has nearly 65 per cent stake, stopped production putting their social security at risk. Since then workers had formed a joint action committee protesting the moves of Vedanta group. They have also erected a tent near the factory and launched agitation since more than 6 months.

HZL which has commissioned its operations in 1977 is located in an extent of 360 acres in Mindi near Gajuwaka. The smelter unit was disinvested during the NDA regime.

The HZL management cited non availability of place to dump sludge and power situation in Andhra Pradesh among other reasons to close their smelter unit and suspend operations.

HZL has two tanks each on 10 acres. The second tank is half filled and it can last for another five years, said B Krishna Appa Rao Naidu of Zince Smelter Mazdoor Sangh (ZSMS).

“It has become very difficult for us to manage and maintain our families without salaries. We want the committee to be constituted at the earliest and submit the report,” said Naidu.