Withdraw petition against High Court order, pay our wages in compliance with the High Court Order, demanded members of a Joint Joint Movement Committee of Tripura Jute Mills workers and pensioners on Saturday at Hapania Jute Mills premises in Agartala.
The workers and pensioners of Tripura Jute Mills held a demonstration at Hapania Jute Mills Office on Saturday. They were demanding withdrawal of a petition filed by the State Government in the High Court against the latter’s previous order issued to consider the Jute Mills workers like other PSUs and fix their wages accordingly.
Speaking to the Media, the Joint Movement Committee of Tripura Jute Mills workers and pensioners leaders said, the High Court delivered a verdict asking the State Government to consider Tripura Jute Mills Workers at par with other PSUs and fix their wages accordingly w.e.f January 1, 1996.
Alleging that the verdict of the High Court is yet to be fully implemented, leader of the Joint Movement Committee said the verdict was partially implemented for those who were working the Mills – however, the pensioners remained deprived of the benefits, so far.
According to the leaders, in 2020, Tripura Jute Mill Managing Board decided to pay the arrears to the beneficiaries. However, for reasons best known to the Board members, the decision did not materialize, so far, leaders alleged.
“Instead of implementing the High Court verdict, the State Government approached the High Court with a petition against the verdict”, the leaders told the media.
“The Appeal of the State Government will come up for hearing on September 7 next. We are fervently urging the Government to withdraw the anti-labour appeal and clear the dues of the workers and pensioners without any further delay”, an agitating leader said.
The leaders also argued that the pensioners were eligible to get full pension benefits which they were not getting.
“We are getting pensions as per the ceiling policy. Earlier, ceiling was fixed at Rs 5000 which subsequently increased to Rs 15,000. Even though we are eligible to get full pension benefits, we are still receiving the pension based on an upper limit of Rs 15,000”, pensioners alleged and demanded the State Government accept the verdict and pay the Jute Mills workers and pensioners their legitimate wages.