Employees of Mawmluh Cherra Cement Limited (MCCL) have petitioned Chief Minister Conrad Sangma regarding non-payment of their salaries pending for over 16 months.
In a letter to Sangma today, the Mawmluh Cherra Cement Employees Union (MCCEU) said that the pending salaries were not paid despite assurance given by the chief minister on December 10, 2020.
“The non-payment of the pending salaries has affected the present and future condition of the employees whether financially or otherwise especially in the present situation with the Covid-19 lockdown,” the MCCEU said in the letter to the chief minister.
It also threatened to resort to “strong course of action” if the pending salaries are not cleared to the employees.
Further, the union also urged Sangma to expedite the process of early running of the MCCL factory “so that employees’ financial condition will be stabilised”.
It may be mentioned that the employees of the oldest State-owned cement factory have resorted to hunger strike in the city from December 8 to December 10, 2020 to press for their long pending demands.
According to the employees, they are yet to receive the salaries from November 2015 to March 2016 and from February 2020 to December 2020. As per their estimates, an average of Rs 20 crore will be needed to pay the 1500 odd employees of the cement factory including casual staff.
The other demands include payment of seven-year overtime from 2013 till date, arrears of pay revision from April 2018 till date, medical reimbursement and others.
The employees called off their hunger strike after they were called for talks on December 10, 2020 by the chief minister who assured that their pending salaries would be cleared in time including addressing their various demands.
