Birla Tyres Increases Permanent Staff Numbers, Resumes Production

Indian news sources report production at Birla Tyres’ stoppage-riddled facility in Orissa State has returned to normal, an event accompanied by a rise in the number of permanent employees at the plant. Management is said to have decided upon the resumption of “full production” and the induction of 280 of the factory’s casual workers as permanent employees, boosting permanent payroll numbers to 2,110. The plant’s 450 contractual workers have been upgraded to casual status.

These decisions were made on May 4 at a meeting with six of the company’s seven registered trade unions, a meeting also attended by Birla’s senior president Deepak Tandon. The working president of the sole union absent from the meeting, the Birla Tyres Workers’ Union, remains sceptical about the decisions. “The management did not invite us to the meeting,” stated Rajendra Bal. “However the decision involving other unions is not fair and instead of absorbing all 702 casual workers the company has absorbed only 280 workers.

“We doubt whether the newly absorbed would get the same benefits what the earlier permanent workers were getting since we were being sidelined on each and every aspect of the company. We have vented out our grievances to the collector,” Bal added.