Crisis skirts HPL, casual workers to be regularised

The stalemate at Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) seems to have blown away, at least temporarily. The meeting between the HPL authorities and the CITU labour union at Haldia on Monday turned out to be rather successful. The CITU, trade union wing of the ruling CPI (M) party in West Bengal, had earlier threatened an indefinite strike at HPL demanding regularisation of jobs of 183 casual workers of the plant.
 
According to information available, the HPL authorities have assured the labour union leaders of considering the demand and have sought one week time to start the process of regularising the casual workers. The authorities have also reportedly assured to regularise the casual workers in phases.

Expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting, CITU leaders said they would meet the HPL authorities again next week to evaluate progress of the assurances. They, however, threatened to go back to the indefinite strike call if the HPL authorities go back on their assurance. But for the time being, the strike call by the CITU has been shelved to allow the HPL authorities to regularise the casual workers.

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