BALANGIR: Powmex Steels of Graphite India Limited group was reopened on Thursday after three months at Titilagarh. Labour Minister Puspendra Singhdeo, Planning and Coordination Minister AU Singhdeo and MP Kalikesh Singhdeo have held talks with the management and the labour leaders.Powmex Steels was closed after its Deputy General Manager Radheshyam Rai was burnt to death by angry labourers in front of the factory gate on March 3. While police arrested nine persons for the DGM killing, deadlock between the management and the labourers continued. It was resolved in the presence of Labour Minister that all the workers will be paid medical insurance incentive of ` 500. While the salary of contractual labourers will be hiked by ` 900, regular workers will get `1,900. The Labour Minister held discussions on the contentious issue of salary hike with the management and the labour leaders. “The Labour Minister assured the workers that they would be getting some added benefits as they had been demanding,” said the MP. Powmex Steels has 160 regular and 321 contract workers. While the contract workers had been demanding job regularisation and were at loggerheads with the management for some months, the regular workers were pressing for pay hike and promotion. Besides, sources revealed, of the two unions - Powmex Workers’ Union and Dynamic Industrial Labour Union -- 14 regular and 45 contract workers under Dynamic Union were suspended. They were fighting for their re-instatement. Dynamic was recognised by a secret ballot in 2007. While the unskilled and semi-skilled labourers in the company were getting ` 90 and ` 103 a day, the skilled and highly skilled were getting ` 116 and ` 129 respectively.
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