Nearly 20k HAL employees go on strike over wages

Almost 20,000 HAL employees began a strike and stayed away from work, sitting in protest outside their factories and offices across seven cities, demanding equitable wage revision.

All India HAL Trade Unions Coordination Committee (AIHALTUCC) had on Sunday, 13 October, announced the indefinite strike after talks with the management ended in failure.

“We are observing strike in all nine units of HAL all over India. More than 10,000 employees here (in Bengaluru) are on strike and as a result work has come to a standstill,” the AIHALTUCC chief convener Suryadevara Chandrashekhar told.

Following talks between the management and the union on Sunday, a day before the strike was to begin, the union members rejected the management’s offer of a hike of 11% fitment benefit and 22% perks for 1 to 10 Scale and 20% perks for one scale on a conditional basis, to be confirmed by the MD once the nine units agree to one and all accept the revisions. However, this did not go down well with the employee’s unions.

“Despite the management’s joint efforts towards bringing an friendly and early wage settlement, unions unfortunately have adopted a uncooperative approach and did not accept the offer and decided to go for indefinite strike; in spite of management’s appeal not to resort to an indefinite strike and resolve the issue in a spirit of accommodation,” the management said in a statement.

All nine units of the employee’s unions had issued a notice to the management about their intention to go on strike indefinitely from 14 October. The management had earlier called the worker’s demands unsustainable and unrealistic.