To fend off the lockout, the workers have been asked to accept a hefty 50 per cent wage reduction as well as agree to the discontinuation of canteen and transport facilities given to them or accept voluntary retirment. The Oswal Petrochemicals Employees Union plans to challenge the lockout notice in the industrial court.

As was reported in Express Newsline last week, the staff and workers of Oswal Petrochemicals, a unit of Oswal Agro Mills, were expecting this development from the day the company closed down a 20,000 tonne low-density polyethelyne plant (LDPE) in Chembur in September ostensibly for repair and maintenance work. From October onwards, the company also begun forcing workers to accept avoluntary retirement scheme.

While the Saturday notice has only been given to the workers, and no intimation of a lockout has been given to the staff, around 17 staffers in various supervisory positions have been transferred to the Oswal Agro sugar unit in Phagwara. The recently formed Oswal Petrochemicals Staff Association plans to contest the transfers in court.

With the wage reduction offer, the company which claims that it is running losses to the tune of Rs 1 crore per month, hopes to get back on its feet. But, it expects each of its 537 workers to submit a letter individually agreeing to a drastic cut in his salary ``till such a time the company is in a position to offset the cost of production against the sale price.'' The other option available to workers is the VRS, under which a maximum of Rs 2 lakh are being offered as compensation.

According to company sources, the Chembur unit had become entirely unviable considering the increasing cost of production. The rising prices of naptha, power andother raw materials for the production of LDPE over the years coupled with advancement of technologies and free availability of imported and indigenous LDPE had put immense strain on profit margins, the company claimed in its notice.

However neither the staffers nor the workers are willing to buy this argument. Nobody, they point out will be willing to accept a 50 per cent reduction in salaries. ``Even if one goes by the company's logic, just how much money will the company save by closing down the canteen or stopping the transport facilities? A few lakhs? It is nothing, but pure harassment,'' said an official. And none of the workers are happy with the terms of the voluntary retirement scheme either. ``We do not want money, but a job,'' said a worker.