Pricol Coimbatore finally resumes work

Pricol Limited, Coimbatore held a press conference to give a brief on why the company’s laborers went on strike recently. Addressing the media, Vikram Mohan, MD, Pricol Limited, Coimbatore said, the union has been always impractical and unreasonable in their demands but in the interest of the business and the people at large, the management had reached a tripartite agreement in the year 2012 and 2014 thereby fulfilling the demands of the union without any shortcomings and delays.

The tripartite agreement expired on 30th June, 2018 and discussions were underway towards forming a new agreement between the parties when the members of the union went on an indefinite strike. Negotiations were happening in Coimbatore and Chennai respectively with the representation of members from the labor department. The strike saw the union demanding a pay of Rs. 1, 25,000 p.m. from Rs/- 35,000 p.m. which was 3.17 times higher. Pricol had a very bad Q2 and a partly bad Q3.

Considering the fact that the strike was called when Diwali was round the corner, the company had to suffer a huge loss since they hired temporary people to meet the customer’s requirement. Total loss suffered by the company due to strike was 25-30 crores. As per the inputs received from the company, some of the workers have voluntarily decided to join work on 3.12.18 and the company has directed them to relocate them to cities like Pune, Pantnagar and Sri city near Chennai.

Whether or not the workers accept the offer is something officials are still worried about. Work will be resumed in a phased manner. The company has taken great pain in setting up its operations post the 2011 strike and that was one of the major factors why the management didn’t give in to the demands this time around. This time it was only after government intervention that things fell in place. A three member external panel was also set up last time but their recommendations were not heeded to by the union which is why this time there was absolutely no involvement of any external people.