Lockdown impact: Pharma company sacks 100 workers

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, May 12

In what is being seen as lockdown impact on jobs, a Bahadurgarh-based pharmaceutical company is alleged to have shown the door to over 100 of its workers, many of them working with the firm for several years.

The workers, including several women, have approached the Labour Department in a written complaint for restoration of their jobs alleging that they have been removed from jobs without serving any notice or assigning any reason.

“All the sacked employees had been working on posts of helper, assistant operator and operator in the Belco Pharma Company for past several years. The majority of us were on regular scales. On March 25, all of us were sent home by the company manager stating that the company would remain shut due to the lockdown. We were told that we would be called as soon as the operations are resumed but later, no one contacted us,” said Sushil Kumar, a sacked employee.

He maintained they went to the company this morning on getting information about its opening but were not allowed to enter. The company manager later informed them that they had been sacked, he added.

Another sacked worker, Suman, who is also president of the Company Workers Union, said they were shocked on losing their jobs without getting any notice, she added. Kuldeep Budhwar, Labour Inspector, said both the parties have been asked to appear in his office on May 18 for inquiry.

Company manager Anup Maheswari denied the allegations stating that no one had been sacked and all of them had quit on their own on March 25 .