Bhubaneswar, India:
OMC hopes to normalise production from the month of November after struggling for a period of more than 2 months due to worker unrest. However, OMC has attributed heavy rainfall for the fall of production in the last few months rather than the worker's strike.
“We are expecting to normalise Chrome production from the month of November. The production level has been low for the last 3 months. The strike has some impact on the fall in production, but it is mainly due to the rainy season. In the rainy season the mines site becomes slippery and difficult to mine. This is a normal phenomenon every year,” said Laxminarayan Ghana, OMC Regional Manager, Jajpur Chrome region.
On Saturday a five member team of the workers union met OMC CMD Saswat Mishra at Bhubaneswar to find a solution of the logjam. The CMD assured them that he would take a decision on the wage issue in the next 3 days, i.e., by Tuesday. On the issue of regularisation of jobs he assured that he'll raise and discuss the matter in the OMC Board meeting scheduled to be held on 26th of October.
It may be noted that the mines workers have been agitating since August 5th demanding better pay package and regularisation of jobs, due to which chrome ore production has been severely impacted. All the contractual 658 workers are demanding regular job at the mines or daily wage of Rs 550. But from 1st October they have completely stopped the mining and also have closed the local OMC office.
-Tapan moharana
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