Jajpur,Jan 8(Odisha.in) About fifty contractual workers of Silicon Manganese site of Jindal Stainless limited (JSL), located in Kalinga Nagar the steel hub in Jajpur district on Tuesday boycotted their respective jobs and gheraoed their contractor through whom they were engaged demanding immediate payment of their Provident Fund (PF) dues.
According to sources the contract workers of the plant who are working on at the Silicon Manganese site of JSL premises in the erection of the civil and structural works which is being carried out by Larson & Turbo (L&T) company on Tuesday demanded PF dues by abandoning their works and gheraoed the contractor for immediate release of the same.
Despite repeated appeals by both the steel plant management and the contractor concerned the agitating contractual workers neither resumed their respective duties nor restrained themselves from the agitation.
Construction works at Silicon Manganese site of the plant came to a grinding halt following to the agitation.
“The erection works, which being carried out by L&T in JSL plant is nearing to end. We are on the verge of termination. The contractor noticed us for full and final payment for retrenchment.
Hence we are demanding our PF money as it was deducted by the contractor from our salary”, said Rajendra Rout, leader of the contractual workers.
The contractual workers claimed that the contractor was deducting the PF amount for the last couple of years hence the L&T Company should pay their PF slips to them.
“As per the government norm we have deducted the Provident Fund amount from their salaries and deposited it along with our equivalent share with the PF Commissioner regularly.
When the contractual workers were told retrenched as our work is going to end they resorted to agitation leaving their respective duties.
It is our look out to ensure whether the deducted money has been deposited with the PF Commissioner or not. We have given them the deposited slip of the PF money and our duty is over.
Their money lies with the PF Commissioner”, said J. Chanda, project manager of L&T Company. The money belongs to the workers. They have the right to withdraw from their respective PF account. How can we withdraw the same from the PF account, he questioned.
When contacted, Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) at Jajpur Road, Hamid Khan said, “The workers demand is illegal.
As per the norm, a worker while receiving full and final payment from the organization will have to give a filled in ‘form no’19 to the PF Commissioner for his provident fund benefits. The money can only be withdrawn by the account holder himself not by the contractor or the organization.”
Odisha.in