Kathmandu, December 26 :

Even as the issue of racial discrimination at Bottlers Nepal Ltd, the sole franchise of Coca Cola in Nepal, remains unresolved, the company is embroiled in fresh trouble over labour lay offs.

For, the two factories of the beverage major situated in Bharatpur and Kathmandu have been shut down following trouble over termination of services of the daily wage workers. While the issue of lay offs had been a bone of contention between the Coca Cola management and the Maoist affilitated trade union for some time, matters reached to a head on December 24 leading to a lock out in the two factories.

According to Hari Krishna Pursaini, a key spokesman of the workers’ union, “The management arbitrarily stuck the notice of retrenchment on Friday evening after the workers had gone back out after completing their regular duty.” He admitted that the workers’ union had met the management a couple of times before in this context. But the issue had not been resolved.

“While they insisted on the need to expel casual workers on account of the low season, we requested them to retain them in order to keep their home fires burning,” said Pursaini.

When pointed out that the lockout was resulting in huge losses for the company and would in turn affect the workers themselves, Pursaini claimed, “We never wanted the factory to shut down. In fact we are keen that it opens quickly so that we can earn our livelihood. But they need to meet our demands too.”

Meanwhile the top management of BNL remained incommunicado as most of the officials either switched off their mobilephones or refused to take calls. According to the written statement sent in by the company’s PR agency, the two parties were unable to come out with amicable solutions despite series of discussions and meetings with the casual labour representatives. Confirming the complete stoppage of work in both its operations in Kathmandu and Bharatpur from December 24, the statement said, “The casual workers denied to adhere to the agreement between the representatives of peace rate and casual workers, representatives of Federation of All Nepal Trade Union and the company management. The agreement was concluded in the presence of representatives from Federation of Nepal Chambers of Commerce and Industry on June 26.”

Meanwhile the company is reported to be incurring losses amounting to approximately one million rupees a day with this sudden closure.