Coimbatore : Automotive parts manufacture majorPricol Ltd here.on Tuesday expressed their desire to reconsider the dismissal orders of over 70 employees who failed to respond to their transfer orders, if they were willing to resume duty within seven days at their allotted location.

The management had transferred over 250 employees, following continuous strike and a few of the employees had already commenced work in their transferred location, while the remaining 72 employees have not responded to any of the written appeals to them for the last 75 days,.a management release said here.

In view of this, the management, without any option, dismissed them from the services yesterday (February 11) as per their contract of employment condition and statutory guidelines, it said.

"However, we are ready to reconsider their dismissal order on humanitarian grounds if these workmen are willing to resume duty (with a written consent letter to the management) at their allotted location within 7 days from now",the management said.

Though the activities of the union, affiliated to AICCTU have been always detrimental  for the  effective functioning of the plants, in order to protect the interests of the business and employee fraternity at large, the management signed tri-party agreements on  June 2012 and August 2014, and fulfilled the demands of the union from time to time to ensure a peaceful working environment.

As the tri-party agreement came to an end in June last year and discussions were on to formulate a new tri-party agreement with the unions from March onwards. However, a section of the members of AICCTU union went on an indefinite strike, from August 21, which was going on for more than 100 days, with false allegations. against the organization wildly circulated in the social media by the members of the AICCTU union.

Due to which, our major customers insisted that we transfer their existing orders strategically from Coimbatore plants to other plants located in different parts of the country to ensure continuous supply of products. This in turn affected the business at Coimbatore plants in a very big way.

Under these challenging circumstances and considering our social responsibilities to engage the workmen who went on this strike, we did our best to accommodate as many workmen as possible in our Coimbatore plants and the other workmen at our other plants outside  Coimbatore (as per our contract of employment conditions).

Since these businesses have been transferred based on the customer’s request for business stability and long-term sustainability of the organization, the decision to transfer was made in the best interests, of all stakeholders more so to ensure the  well being of around 5,000 families who are solely dependent on the well being of Pricol, the release said.