From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Goa
Goa, Dec 11: Vedanta Sesa Goa today told the labour unions that they will have to resort to no-work-no-pay if transportation of ore is not resumed by next week.
The company had to cancel the shipment to China scheduled this week after section of truck owners agitated demanding higher rates.
"The company management clearly told us the efforts are on to resume iron ore exports after three years. But the current crisis created by some truck owners has stopped the transportation of ore resulting in cancellation of a shipment. The company has to resort to no work no pay from December 15 onwards if transport is not resumed," said Devanand Parab, president, Sesa Goa Workers Union.
The union members held meeting with the company management in Panaji today.
"The management told us that the salary liabilities on the company were met by procuring loans from the banks. But now considering the low export price for the ore even banks have refused to loan the amount," Parab said.
Vedanta Sesa Iron ore was the first company to announce resumption of mining in the state after Supreme Court lifted three year old ban.
"We had planned one million metric tons of export for December month. The first shipment carrying 88,000 metric tons was all ready to buyers in China. But now the second shipment which was planned to leave the port on December 8 was postponed to December 12 and since the transport has stopped we will have to cancel the shipment," said a senior Sesa iron ore company official on the condition of anonymity.
He said the company has signed an agreement with 600 truck owners to transport the ore from mining sites but they are not afraid of backlash after recent incident wherein a truck was burnt by a mob.
In this scenario, Sesa is not able to evacuate the cargo and also not been able to do mining, he added.
The labour union leaders have now decided to take up the issue with workers before making any further announcement.
"The company has told us that they will have to stop the mining if this situation continues. We will now inform the workers. We will have to call for a meeting and decide what would be our next action," said Raju Mangueshkar, leader All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) who was part of the meeting today.