National Aluminium Co., India's biggest alumina maker, restarted its refinery in the eastern Orissa state after workers ended a two-day strike called to protest the death of an employee.
Production at the state-owned company's 1.58 million ton alumina plant stopped on May 8 after union members struck work, demanding children of the deceased be given jobs. The worker died on May 7 at a hospital because of an illness.
"One son will be working with us as a contract laborer and the other will be appointed as a guard by the superintendent of the police," Chairman C.R. Pradhan said from Bhubaneswar, where the company is based.
The strike had threatened to disrupt alumina supplies at a time when prices have surged 76 percent this year. The commodity has recovered to $360 a ton in Europe from a low of $205 a ton in December because of a strike at Guinea, the world's biggest bauxite exporter. Bauxite is refined into alumina, which is then smelted into aluminum.
National Aluminium exports 64 percent of its alumina output and processes the rest into the lightweight metal.
The company typically provides assistance only if a worker dies while on duty, Pradhan said yesterday in an interview. The workers' demand is "unrealistic," he said.
`104 Cases'
Compensation rules must be revised to cover employees who die of natural causes, a union member said.
"Most employees who died in the past, including this new case, gave up their land when the plant was built," said Bipin Khemundu, general secretary of Nalco Mines Employees Union, by phone from Damanjodi where the plant is based. "The company has agreed to formulate a suitable policy to rehabilitate families of the deceased employees. Compensation wasn't enough in the previous 104 cases."
Shares of the company fell 0.6 percent to 257 rupees at the 3:30 p.m. close on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock has shed 18 percent in the past year, compared with a 9 percent gain in the benchmark 30-stock Sensitive index in the period.
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