AIDEF begins protest against Union govt for splintering OFB

The All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), one of the federations representing the defence civil employees, protested against the Union government's decision to splinter the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) into seven corporations by burning effigies.

"The BJP led Government of India has taken a decision which is an historical mistake and blender on June 16 to splinter the 220-year-old Indian Ordnance Factories into 7 corporations. It's an ill advised and ill conceived decision taken by the present government. This is going to have serious impact on the security and Defence preparedness of our country. This decision of the government is in violation of the 20 years written agreement between the government and the Federations that the Ordnance Factories would not be corporatised," General Secretary, AIDEF, C Srikumar said.

Last year, after the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced the decision of the Government to corporatise the ordnance factories the AIDEF and the factory level trade unions served an indefinite strike notice to commence from October 12 against the government's decision. However after the intervention of The Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) a conciliation settlement was reached on October 9 and the strike was deferred.

"However, the government went on violating the settlement and got the approval of empowered group of ministers Chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The Federations (AIDEF,INDWF, BPMS) lodged a complaint against the Ministry of Defence to the CLC on March 31, 2021. However the CLC without taking any action succumbed to the pressure of the Government and closed conciliation proceedings in the absence of the three major federations which served strike, thereby enabling the Government to decide to split Ordnance Factory Board into 7 small corporations," Srikumar elaborated.

Nationwide protest has started in all the Ordnance Factories and Defence establishments and on June 19 throughout the country the effigy of corporatization of OFB / government decision was burned in front of the Defence Establishments. The Federations will meet on Sunday and take a decision about the various action programmes including indefinite strike.