Mumbai, June 5 (KNN) Since the beginning of this month over 2,500 workers of the National Textiles Corporation (NTC) in the financial capital have stopped work to protest the non-payment of their salaries for the last eight months.

The workers, including the ones at NTC office and mill employees, who are struggling to support their families and unable to buy groceries or pay bills on time, said they have not been given medical benefits, and that gratuities have been blocked since 2020, reported HT.

This is the condition of all NTC staff, affecting 12,000, across the country, said an office-bearer of NTC Employees Welfare Forum.

There are around 750 office workers of NTC in the city, the rest are mill workers.

One of the workers said none of them, including the officer in charge (OIC), P Kungumaraju, have been paid their dues, reported HT.

The three last functional mills under the NTC - namely, Tata, Podar, India United and Digvijay - have been shut since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020.

Another, Digvijay, was closed a year prior. Seema Sansare, union leader, attributes the non-payment of salaries and benefits to a shortage of funds.

The mill workers, most of whom are without work, were being paid 50 per cent of their salaries after COVID-19.

After the protest on June 2, a meeting was held among the workers and the officer in charge, who assured the workers he was doing his part to get the funds for their salary released, with the caveat that it would be only 50 per cent of the total.

Another worker brought to notice that the corporation’s workers in Delhi were given medical care at 50 per cent, but the same was not done in Mumbai.

A notice put up at the NTC head office reads, “The undersigned along with senior manager (HR/Legal) called upon all the employees for their peaceful co-operation and informed them that funds for salary/wages are expected within another 2 weeks, It is also requested of all employees not to resort to any illegal steps disturbing the routine office work.”  (KNN Bureau)