Denounce the IOCL management for its extreme coercive response!
Report received from Comrade Sathish of Socialist Workers’ Centre, Tamil Nadu
Contract workers at the LPG Bottling Plant of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) in Karuppur, Salem, Tamil Nadu have gone on strike for longstanding issues revolving around non-payment of minimum wages, unsafe working conditions and inhuman workload, and retaliatory dismissals of workers striving for basic rights of workers. They deserve active support of working people across our country.
It is important to note that workers from other IOCL locations i.e. Panipat in Haryana and Barauni in Bihar are also fighting for similar demands.
It is important to note that IOCL is a Government of India enterprise but is behaving with workers exactly in the same way as any capitalist, breaking labour laws with impunity. It has been disregarding labour commissioners’ directions and attacking workers’ leaders who are heroically fighting for workers’ rights.
Unpaid wagearrears of 1.09crore rupees despiteorder of labourauthority
On 15th May,2025, the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner(Central), Chennai directed the IOCL management andthecorresponding contractingagencytopay 68 workers approximately Rs.1.09 crores as thewagedifference for the period 2022-2024, since during that period those workers were paid less than stipulated minimum wages. Despite this order, the dues remain unpaid tilldate.
Continued wage payment less than minimum wages
From 2024 onwards, wages are being calculated only according to Central Government minimum wage rates, even though the Tamil Nadu state minimum wage rates are higher, leading to continuing underpayment, completely disregarding provisions of Sec.12 of the Minimum WagesAct,1948, which prohibits payment belowthenotifiedminimum wage.
Inhuman loading targets imposed on workers
The LPG bottling plant currently operates with a production target of 60truckloads of cylinders pershift,withonly 20workersdeployedintotal.Out ofthese, 12workers are supposed to handleloading offilled cylinders onto trucks while eight workers handle unloading of empty cylinders. Viewed in terms of work intensity, this target means that each worker lifts:
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1,500 cylinders in an eight-hour shift
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approximately 187 cylinders per hour
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approximately 3 cylinders per minute
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In effect, this requires a worker to lift and stack a 30 kg cylinder roughly every 20 seconds continuously for eight hours
No expert is required to assess how inhuman is this target! Earlier this work used to be done by 2 workers together, however now only one worker is supposed to complete this target. This has severely increased the work strain on workers leading to workers falling prey to bone injuries, ligament and cartilage tears.
Not only that but at the end of the shift, if there are even one or two cylinders less than these inhuman production targets in a lorry/truck, that day’s wages get completely cut for the workers which amounts to unlawful deductions.
Safety violations inside the plant
LPG is a classified hazardous gas. The necessary mandated safety precautions are not adequately enforced by the management, thus exposing workers to hazardous working conditions.
Contractor changes without notice
The work done by these workers of LPG bottling and loading are core and perennial activities. Majority of the current workers have been doing the same work since many years. But IOCL has refused to enroll them as permanent workers thus directly violatingtheContract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act.
Instead, just like most of the enterprises employing contract workers for perennial type of work, IOCL has also resorted to a unfair practice of changing the labour contractors regularly, though the same workers continue to do the work. In last one year itself, three contractors have been changed (first Meena LPG Industries, then Lorry Owners Association and now TPT Enterprises).
When workers started fighting and raising these issues again and again, these disputes were taken up before the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) through conciliation proceedings. As has been the experience all over the country, these conciliation proceedings have proved to be nothing else but a “time pass” in the interests of IOCL management.
In order to suppress the struggle and scare the workers, IOCL management, through the labour contractors started dismissing the workers’ leaders of these agitations. But the workers have refused to back down. On 2nd March, they struck half-a-day’s work to protest the arbitrary and vindictive termination of 4 of their comrades.
They have continued their struggle for the following main demands:
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Recognition of workers as permanent employees.
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Payment of Rs.1.09 crore minimum wage arrears with 8% interest.
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Payment of wage differences from 2024 onwards.
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Reopening and revision of the September 2025 conciliation settlement.
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Reinstatement of dismissed workers with continuity of service and back wages.
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Cancellation of unilateral contractor changes.
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Scientific limits on loading targets that protect workers’ health and dignity.
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Guaranteed minimum wages and protection from arbitrary deductions.
The demands of contract workers of IOCL, Karuppur are just and must be fulfilled by the IOCL without any further delay.