Coimbatore: Close to 60 workers at Pankaja Mills, owned by the National Textile Corporation (NTC), went on protest for six hours on Friday, after five of them were pulled up for watching the India-West Indies T-20 semi-final match on Thursday night.

Workers said the company's senior officers also switched off power to the worker's accommodation, leaving them sleepless.

The workers say the trouble began at 5pm on Thursday, when the shift supervisor requested five of the workers to work an extra shift which would be recorded as overtime.

"The five workers said they had just finished working two shifts, the night and day, so they were tired and wanted to retire," said Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) district secretary, C Padmanabhan.

"However, when the general manager was informed that the five men refused to work, in anger he barged into their hostel room within the premises to find them watching the cricket T-20 semi-finals. He verbally abused them and subsequently switched off the power for the entire hostel," said Bharath Makik, one of the protesters.

Since the workers did not have power, they were unable to cook and could not sleep. "After a hard day's work, we could not even get a good night's rest. We could not even cook our dinner so many of us went to bed hungry," he said.

"They are treating us like slaves. If they want us to leave, let them just settle our dues, we will leave," said another worker. "Each of us have a pending provident fund of around 60,000 to 70,000. If they settle it, we will leave," said Bharath Malik.

CITU representatives said most of the workers had been overworked by the company for years. "Every worker needs to work only eight hours a day, but most work 50 shifts a month. Every time there is more work, those staying in the hostel are called on to do extra shifts," said Padmanabhan.

The issue got resolved by Friday afternoon, when CITU and the management forced the general manager to apologise to the workers for his harsh reaction and use of abusive language against them.



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