VASCO: To draw the attention of the company management to the non-payment of their salaries, around 270 workers and 80 officers of Western India Shipyard Limited locked themselves in the company premises on Tuesday evening. They had even threatened to remain in the premises until their salaries were disbursed.
However, the issue was later resolved after the intervention of Union leader Ajit Singh Rane, who sought an assurance from the WISL management that the workers’ salaries would be released by May 10.
According to information, after a months-long battle between the WISL workers and management over the nonpayment of seven months salaries, the latter had promised to disburse the same in a phased manner.
However, after paying one salary installment, the management missed the deadline of April 20 for the second installment, triggering panic amongst the workers, who decided to teach the company a lesson by locking themselves inside the premises on Tuesday evening until their salary issue was resolved.
“We had to hold a months-long agitation for our pending salaries. The issue was later resolved as the company management assured that they would disburse our salary in three installments, to which we agreed. As per the assurance, the first salary installment of two months was even paid to us in February. The second installment of one-month salary was supposed to be disbursed on April 20 and the third installment of four months’ salary on or before May 15. However, even after giving enough time, the company management did not release our second salary installment,” said a worker.
The workers locked themselves in the company premises till 2 am.
