A day after the Hetauda Appellate Court extended a stay order against the strike at Surya Nepal, its workers threatened to go to the extent of shutting down the factory if the management still didn’t fulfil their demands.

A meeting of the Maoist-affiliated Nepal Multinational Companies’ Workers Union (NMCWU) representing the factory’s workers held on Friday concluded that the court had been unfair towards them and planned their next move.

The workers at the country’s largest cigarette factory said they wouldn’t abide by the court’s decision claiming that the management had ‘bought the judiciary’.

They also claimed that though they had launched their protest as allowed by the prevailing labour laws and had presented the necessary documents to justify their demand, the judiciary had gone against them.

The Hetauda Appellate Court on Thursday sustained the stay order against the strike at the Simara-based factory pending a final decision after the workers have submitted a justification for their demands. “The court extended the stay order because the management has bought it and enticed it not to favour the genuine demands of the workers,” said Indranath Sharma, spokesperson of the NMCWU. “Defying the court’s stay order, we will relaunch our protest from tomorrow.”

He said that the workers wouldn’t disrupt the factory’s operation but would stage sit-ins, corner meets and chant slogans to get their demands fulfilled. “But if our voices still remain unheard, we won’t fear to take any necessary step including closure of the factory.”

The NMCWU also blamed other major trade unions for not supporting it to help the workers get their demands fulfilled.

The NMCWU has been agitating for the last few months demanding that the management fulfil their eight-point demand which includes a Rs 2,000 raise, an extra allowance of Rs 1,000 and gratuity of Rs 500,000.

The union had also threatened to shut down the factory from last Monday if the management didn’t fulfil their demands. Fearing a closure of the factory, the management went to court which issued a stay order preventing the workers from stopping operations pending a final decision and had scheduled a hearing for April 5.

Ravi KC, corporate vice president of Surya Nepal, said that if trade unions could be vandals even under the rule of law, the management can do nothing. “If the workers flout the court’s decision, it would be the most horrible event for the industrial sector of the country.”

He added that the workers’ decision in itself was anarchy, and that the government should handle it. He also issued a challenge that if the management was at fault, it was ready to correct its mistake and claimed that it had already fulfilled the demands of the workers. KC said that the management had given the workers a 57 percent raise in the past two years. He added that the salaries had been increased by Rs 1,165 three months ago, and that the workers were getting a 6.5 percent annual raise.

Published on: 7 April 2012 | The Kathmandu Post