Hetauda, August 4

A memorandum was submitted to district administration office today over the suspension of seven employees at Unilever, a multi-national company based in Makawanpur.

A team led by district council affiliated to International Trade Union Nepal reached the DAO and met Chief District Officer Man Bahadur Bishwokarma, demanding that the suspension be lifted. They said the management had suspended them after they demanded the implementation of an agreement reached in the past.

Besides revocation of the suspension order, the team has also asked the administration facilitate in implementing the past deal with the company management.

Speaking about the issue, council coordinator Kumar Poudel said the council had to interfere after the management’s injustice against the seven employees, who were handed the suspensions.

Responding to the memorandum, CDO Bishwokarma pledged to take stock of the situation and necessary initiatives. “I’ll do the needful after learning about the issue from the concerned ministry and the company management at the earliest,” he said.

Unilever employees, namely, Lalkrishna Pyakurel, Jayaram Dhital, Uddhav Prasad Pahadi, Chit Bahadur Bishwokarma, Ram Sapkota, Chandra Prasad Sapkota and Rabibabu Mall were suspended. It is said the management had suspended them after they had staged a sit-in at the industry on July 10 demanding implementation of a past agreement.

According to suspended employees, the company did not honour the three-point deal signed with the workers about two months ago. It was supposed to provide stalled house loan to the employees and also provide 2 lakh in grant to quake victim employees.

Though talks were expected to happen yesterday over the possibility of implementation of the deal, the company  published a notice on Tuesday itself notifying about suspension of the seven agitating  staffers.