The company’s bid to continue the refinery operation by sourcing bauxite from other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh was also thwarted by various logistic, regulatory and procedural issues
Even as Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) has shut down its Lanjigarh refinery for want of bauxite, the company has not retrenched any employee, said a report submitted by district labour officer (DLO), Kalahandi.
VAL has closed its plant from December5 basing on a three-months advance notice to the state government and had attributed the cause of closure of refinery to economic unviability of the plant in the absence of assured supply of bauxite.
“The management of VAL, Lanjigarh, Kalahandi has stopped production of alumina from December 5 as per the notice to the government but it has not closed the main gate of the establishment and retrenched any workmen or employee”, the DLO said in his report to the State Labour Commissioner.
VAL employs around 535 executives, 52 contractors and 3175 contract labourers while one labour union is functioning in the refinery.
The situation in and around the factory is normal and peaceful so far and the number of affected workmen due to stoppage of production is nil, the DLO informed.
However, the state government sticks to its guns that closure notice given by the company was “not in the proper format" as stipulated under the act.
We have not received any information in the prescribed format from the company, maintained Deputy Labour Commissioner Narendra Kumar Samantray. He said that the closure notice would be taken into cognizance by the state government only after receiving it in the prescribed format.
According to Section 25 (o) of the Industrial Disputes Act, an employer has to give a 90 days’ notice in the prescribed format to the appropriate government authority, clearly stipulating the reasons for the intended closure.
The DLO said in the letter that he has no knowledge regarding the permission of the state government for the closure of refinery.
It appears that as per the 25 (o) (3) (4) the management can close the establishment within a period of one year, the DLO said.
The company has said that it has gone for “temporary” closure and it will resume its operation only after having five to six months of assured supply of bauxite. To run the one million tonne per annum (mtpa) refinery plant at full steam, VAL needs 300,000 tonnes of bauxite every month.
VAL had designed its refinery in Odisha keeping in mind the locally available bauxite. The aluminium major had entered into an agreement with state controlled miner Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) for supply of bauxite. But attempts to mine bauxite at the ecologically sensitive Niyamgiri hills under OMC’s leasehold in Lanjigarh district were red flagged by the environment ministry that had scrapped the Stage-II forest clearance on August 24, 2010.
The company’s bid to continue the refinery operation by sourcing bauxite from other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh was also thwarted by various logistic, regulatory and procedural issues.
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