300 Polycab workers go on indefinite strike

VADODARA: More than 300 regular and contract workers of a unit of Halol-based Polycab Wires Ltd (PWL) went on an indefinite strike from Sunday morning, alleging that the company deducted some amount from their monthly salary after giving them Diwali bonus.
Polycab is one of the largest manufacturer of cables and wires in the country.
The workers have alleged that the company gave Rs 16,800 to each as Diwali bonus, according to government norms, which is double than what they used to receive it every year.However, they deducted Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 from their monthly salary without any intimation.
"With rising prices it is difficult to manage expenses with the salary that we receive. On top of that if the company deducts our salaries, how are we supposed to manage our finances? We will continue our agitation until we get our money back," said Gopal Puri, a worker.
However, the company's management refuted the charges and said that it was because of an error in the system that the workers were paid double bonus.
"We have introduced a new resource planning system in our company due to which an error occurred and double bonus was paid to the workers. We had decided to recover the overpaid amount after Diwali in six instalments and this deduction was part of the same," said Anand Rao, head of human resources at PWL .
He added that the error occurred in disbursing bonus to other staff members as well and a similar deduction has been done there too.
Rao told TOI that they have tried to convince the workers about the error and they expect them to resume their work in two days.
Polycab which has six units in Halol has 3,500 contract and other workers on payroll. Except in unit 5, workers at other units have not joined the agitation.