the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said he has warned Vedanta Resources, the only listed mining company operating in the State, against going ahead and retrenching its workers due to the prolonged ban on the industry in Goa.
“Some companies have resorted to laying off workers. Let me make it clear that when the time comes to giving them leases, the government will make it pre-requisite for them to take back all the workers they retrenched,” Sawant said, when asked whether the mining company had approached the State’s labour ministry with the proposal to retrench its workers.
Sawant said the mining companies work under the jurisdiction of the Central labour commissioner and therefore cannot not lay off their workers without keeping the State labour department in the loop. He said a group of Vedanta workers met him on Thursday and he has told the company’s top brass not to resort to the step.
“I am saying again. If and when Goa’s mining leases are allotted again, unless the companies re-employ 100 per cent of the workers who have been retrenched, only then will the government co-operate,” Sawant said.
Several of Goa’s mining firms have laid off workers over the last year or so following the ban on the industry.
