Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi, Jan 09: Striking officials of the Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC and GAIL on Friday evening called off their three day old strike as the Government threatened mass arrests under ESMA and NSA.
"Yes, we have called off our agitation," Sanjay Varshney, one of the vice presidents of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) that launched the strike Wednesday, told agencis.
As soon as the news of all unions agreeing to resume work broke out, Oil Minister Murli Deora said he was saddened it took so long for things to normalise. "I hope this will be a lesson to others so that they should not hurt the interests of the country," he said.
With this announcement, strike has come to an end at IOC, GAIL, BPCL, ONGC and Petronet.
The companies will work on Saturday and Sunday- normally week-offs- to clear the backlog.
Earlier in the day, IOC served an ultimatum to the company’s striking employees, asking them to resume work by Saturday or face consequences.
Accoridng to Behuria, IOC has decided to declare Saturday and Sunday as working days “to make up for the losses”. “We have decided to work on weekends on Saturday and Sunday. If the striking employees won’t come then we will think the strike is continuing. Hopefully by Monday we would ensure normalcy.”
Behuria also confirmed that they have requested the Army and Air Force to help maintain oil supplies.
The IOC chairman informed the reporters that all the states have invoked ESMA to tackle the crisis.
He further blamed that it is the stubbornness of the leaders and negotiators that is creating a deadlock in the negotiations.
He further said, “Their demand has been forwarded to the GOM and a decision on the same would soon come by,” he assured
Behuria further added that all efforts are being made to restore air fuel supplies, which got crippled severely by the nation-wide strike by the oil PSU officers demanding higher wages.
He further assured the people that they have supplies of 10-15 days.
“We are also making a contingency plan to meet the challenges,” Behuria added.
Questioning the decision of the PSU officers to go to strike, Behuria said, “How can the GoM take a decision within a day or two? Still we have assured them that the GoM would take a decision within a day or two.”
Meanwhile according to reports, both the BPCL and Oil India officials have called off their strike. However, ONGC workers are still on their war path demanding better pay.
First Published: Friday, January 09, 2009, 00:00