Ongole Dairy staff go on relay hunger strike

Ongole: The workers and employees of the Ongole Milk Producers Company Limited, who opted for the voluntary retirement scheme- 2020, started an indefinite relay hunger strike demanding for clearance of the package, and arrears immediately while leaving the company, in front of the Ongole dairy from Wednesday.

The workers and employees representative G Nageswara Rao said that after the Ongole Dairy is brought to function under the AMUL Dairy, the management asked the employees to give their consent for voluntary retirement under VRS- 2020 and submit the forms from January 1 to February 28, 2021.

The company had displayed the total benefits for individual employees including the VRS package, IR and leave encashment, etc., on the notice board.

The employees whose names were listed submitted the VRS option forms to the Dairy CEO immediately.

He said that many of them are in very much requirement of the money and hence agreed to the proposal of the company. But the CEO issued orders of termination of service from February 01, without clearing the dues and benefits.

The workers demanded the dairy to pay the PRC dues from June 2, 2014, to March 31, 2015, DA dues from January 1, 2015, EPF from November 2018, pending salaries from June 2020, surrender leave dues for the last 4 years, leave encashment, increment dues, LIC, credit society dues, IR, gratuity and GIS dues along with the VRS- 2020 package immediately.

The CITU leaders Kalam Subbarao, Ch Majumdar, G Narasaiah inaugurated the relay hunger strike camp while the employees M Srinivasa Rao, G Venkata Rao, V Prasad, K Ramireddy, Ch Subbarao and others sat on the hunger strike. They announced that they will continue the agitation until all of their issues are resolved by the government and all arrears are cleared and credited into their accounts.