OFB employees call off strike after Centre agrees to consider their demands

The civilian employees of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have called off their strike after a meeting with Secretary, Department of Defence Production (DDP), where the unions were assured that a high-level committee would be recommended to be set up for considering their demands.

The civilian employees of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have called off their strike after a meeting with Secretary, Department of Defence Production (DDP), where the unions were assured that a high-level committee would be recommended to be set up for considering their demands. "After detailed deliberations, it was agreed to recommend to the Government the setting up of a High-Level Official Committee to interact with Employees Federations to examine their concerns and other aspects of the proposed new entity. The Federations on their part have agreed to withdraw the ongoing strike and continue with the process of dialogue," a Defence Ministry release said.

With this, the employees will now be resuming their duties with effect from Monday, August 26, the Defence Ministry further said in the statement. The meeting of Secretary, DDP, with office bearers of All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), Indian National Defence Workers Federation (INDWF) INDWF, Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS) and Confederation of Defence Recognized Associations (CDRA) took place on Friday.

"Continuing the process of dialogue which had started from August 14, 2019, the fourth meeting was held yesterday with the office bearers of AIDEF, INDWF, BPMS, and CDRA under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DDP," the statement informed. The Secretary DPP while reaffirming that the proposed corporatisation of OFB is under examination, also listened to the concerns expressed by the Employees Federations regarding how the benefits or interests of employees in terms of wages, health facilities and other service matters may be affected due to the corporatisation of OFB.

"The Employees Federations inter-alia suggested that their views should be considered while preparing the roadmap for increasing the turnover of the proposed entity from the current levels," it said. On August 21, the Defence Ministry had said that OFB products are of high cost, have poor quality issues and there is a lack of or minimal innovation in the factories.

The OFB consists of forty-one ordnance factories, nine training institutes, three regional marketing centres, and four regional controllerates. Apart from being the world's largest government-operated production organisation, it is also the oldest organisation run by the Government of India with a workforce of around 1.6 lakh.

The OFB workers were on a strike against plans to "corporatize" the organisation. (ANI)

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