Beedi workers threaten to stage protest

 
Addressing a press conference, KKBWU President Mohammed Rafi said that the workers will hold mass protest in front of their respective beedi depots, if their demands were not met before May 20. He said that around 75,000 workers are yet to receive the dearness allowance Rs 4,500 each in the region.
Employers are cheating workers by violating the agreement signed in the presence of Labour Commissioner, he said. Only few companies distributed dearness allowance to all employees including those who resigned, he said.
Companies also had cheated workers by delaying the implementation of wage revision. Even though the State government had revised the wage in April 2008, companies started implementing it only after two months, he charged. Similarly, companies also did not implement the revised wage Rs 69.75 of April, 2009.
Rafi demanded that the companies should distribute dearness allowance to all employees immediately.