Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent:
1500 contract workers running NTECL power plant have been continuously fighting for permanency and deserve the support of all electricity workers as well as the entire working class of the country!
The NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Limited (NTECL) is a 50:50 joint venture between National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), a Central Public Sector Undertaking and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (TANGEDCO), which is a Tamil Nadu state owned company. It has three thermal power generating plants of 500 MW each (Units 1, 2 and 3) in Vallur, Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu and became operational in 2012.
The astonishing fact about NTECL is that the 1500 workers who operate the thermal power plant are all contract workers! They are neither employed by NTPC nor by TANGEDCO. NTECL brought in a third party, Utility Powertech Limited to hire the workers to run the plant. This was obviously done to reduce the cost of operating the power plant and increase its profit.
Ever since 2012, the workers have been fighting for permanency and humane working conditions. Running a thermal power plant is a highly hazardous job and involves operating high pressure boilers, turbines, 400 KV switch yards, hydrogen and chlorine plants, etc. Highly skilled and hazardous operations like these should never be carried out by contract workers but only by permanent workers properly trained in all safety measures and paid commensurate with the nature of their job.
The contract workers of NTECL are paid on the average Rs 21,000 per month whereas a permanent worker in NTPC doing the similar job would earn more than Rs 1,00,000 per month, which is 5 times more than what is earned by NTECL workers.
Also to run the thermal power plant, NTCP is deputing trainee engineers without sufficient experience. This has resulted in two major fires, in Unit 3 in 2016 and in Units 1 & 2 in 2023. Due to unsafe operations carried out under these untrained engineers, several workers have met with severe injuries.
It is against these unjust conditions that the workers have been continuously agitating. They struck work for 12 days from 2nd February 2024 to 14th February 2024. The entire power generation was crippled. The management refused to entertain their demand for permanency saying the case is going on in court. They were forced to give some nominal wage increase.
Earlier to this in 2017, they had struck work and the management was forced to increase their wages which were as per the minimum wages of the State of Tamil Nadu to the minimum wages of Central Government, which were marginally higher.
In 2012 the workers, organised under the Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) (NTECL Vallur Thermal Power Station Branch), went to the Deputy Labour Commissioner in Chennai with their grievances. The talks with the management failed and the workers and their union went to the High Court, Chennai in 2017. In October 2023 (after 6 years!) the High Court in Chennai observed that the demand for permanency of workers can be taken for consideration by the NTECL management. However, before the sitting judge could issue the written order he was transferred to Madurai, with the result that the workers of NTECL are still waiting for the written order!
The workers of NTECL also raised a dispute with the Factory Inspector, Tamil Nadu in 2018, that a public sector undertaking cannot have two principal employers, NTECL and UPL. They also raised the point that the workers of NTECL have been working for more than 480 days continuously and as per the Contract Labour Act, 1970, they should be made permanent. As a result of this, the license of UPL was cancelled and they were forced to leave NTECL in 2022.
However, as regards the issue of making the workers permanent, the enquiry is still going on after 6 years! This is due to the continuous pressure brought on the Factory Inspector and the government authorities by the NTECL management against the interests of the workers and against making them permanent employees.
From the above experience of NTECL workers, the following questions arise very strongly:
a) How can a public sector undertaking NTECL, established with people’s money employ contract labour for running its establishment? Government/public sector undertakings are supposed to be model employers. If the Government / public sector company employs contract labour, then what is the message being conveyed to private industrialists who are profit hungry and are ever ready to squeeze human labour to the bone and throw away the human beings whenever they feel like?
b) How can a thermal power plant, which involves highly skilled labour to work in extremely hazardous circumstances, employ contract labour to run the power plant?
c) How can these workers be paid minimum wages when they are involved in such highly skilled and hazardous operations?
d) How does it happen that the High Courts are not able to give justice to the workers even after 6 years of court hearings when the Contract Labour Act, 1970 very clearly does not allow use of contract labour in jobs of a permanent nature? If the highest courts of the land are unable to give justice to exploited workers, then what recourse is left to the workers apart from united struggle?
e) How does it happen that the Factory Inspectors are not able to give justice to the workers even after 6 years when it is very clear that the workers employed on contract are working under extremely hazardous conditions and are suffering grievous injuries due to unsafe practices? What recourse is left to the workers apart from united struggle?
f) How does it happen that the government authorities even give licences to private contractors to employ workers violating all existing laws? What recourse is left to the workers apart from united struggle?
The struggle and demands of NTECL workers are entirely justified and deserve the support of all electricity workers of the country as well as the entire working class.