Trade unions want Balco's public sector status back

Leading trade unions in India's aluminium major Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) reiterated that the government should give a serious re-look at taking back Balco's 51 percent sold equity.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2001 sold the public sector undertaking's equity to Anil Agarwal-owned Sterlite Group at Rs.5.5 billion, a deal that sparked protests by then opposition Congress and Left parties.

Trade unions staged a record 67-day strike at the Korba unit in Chhattisgarh, accusing that the aluminium major's assets were undervalued.

'The Balco deal was a complete sellout of national assets. We will strive hard to persuade the government to take back Balco's 51 percent lost equity,' A.M. Ansari, the working president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) at Balco, told IANS.

The Balco disinvestment deal created a row last year as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) raised certain serious points about the deal and said that the NDA government had gone for disinvestments with undue haste.

The issue got further attention in September with the government, in a surprise move, returned a cheque worth Rs.10.9 billion sent by Sterlite for the remaining 49 percent government stake in Balco, taking cognizance of the CAG's indictment of the price and valuation.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has now constituted a committee of secretaries to review the deal.

The trade unions, which gave up the strike in 2001, are up in arms again, seeking a complete re-look into the deal.

'The deal must be scrapped. The government should start the process of taking back 51 percent sold equity. We are happy that the UPA coalition has returned the cheque to defy Sterlite of taking total managerial control,' M.L. Rajak, Balco's All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary, said.

The AITUC enjoys a stronghold among about 10,000 contract workers at Balco.

'Trade unions are facing a ticklish situation, we do not know whom we should approach for workers' welfare and facilities as the issue of 100 percent stake is still hanging. We never support privatisation of any profit making unit or the way Balco handed over its 51 percent equity to a private firm,' said B.K. Sharma, the general secretary of Balco's Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) unit.

'Uncertainty must be cleared, whether the government takes the possession of a 100 percent equity or gives the remaining 49 percent to Sterlite. For larger interests of workers we need a 100 percent shareholding management by one party,' the INTUC leader said.

Balco was incorporated in the year 1965 as a public sector undertaking (PSU). It was the first in the Indian aluminium industry to produce the alloy rods, which is a feedstock for all aluminium alloy conductors, needed for power transmission lines.