Nearly 12000 employees of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) may draw strength from the employee unions of other state-run entities including Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Indian Railways, MTNL and BSNL if the government does not shelve its plans to privatise BPCL, said company employees. Thousands of workers of BPCL have decided to go on strike on Thursday to protest the government’s decision to privatise the company.
“If the government does not reconsider its decision on BPCL’s privatisation, we would be joined by employees of other oil companies in our strike which will go on for multiple days,” said Praveen Kumar P, general secretary of Cochin Refineries Employees Association, an affiliate of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).
BPCL spokesperson said, ” BPCL employee unions have given a strike notice that they plan to observe a day’s strike on November 28. All efforts are made to ensure that the refineries and marketing locations to be running normally.”
As on 31, March 2019, BPCL had a total number of permanent employees at 11,971. The total number of employees hired on temporary/contractual/casual basis at BPCL stood at 22,267.
Read Equitypandit’s Nifty Outlook for the Week