Itahari, October 19:

Protesting the reduction in working hours and subsequent cut in wages, workers of Reliance Spinning Mills in Khanar Village Development Committee of Sunsari district shut the factory and launched an indefinite transport strike in the Khanar section of the East-West Highway from today.

Citing load-shedding, the mills management had cut the working hours from eight to six with effect from Friday.

The irate workers vandalised three motorbikes on the charge of defying their strike today. The strike paralysed normal life in Khanar and left hundreds of vehicles stuck on the East-West Highway.

“We had to resort to agitation after the factory management reduced working hours to six hours a day from eight hours,” the workers said.

However, Mahesh Pokharel of the mills management said the agitation was unnecessary.

“Though we have reduced the working hours because of load-shedding, we have decided to pay workers the wage of six hours though they work here for just four hours,” he added.

Meanwhile, different groups of workers in the mills clashed with each other yesterday and today. Two workers were injured in the clash between the workers today, Itahari Area Police Office said.