The indefinite strike launched by the workers of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd’s Mondipatti plant in the district entered its fourth day on Thursday.

Of about 2,500 contract workers of the plant, nearly 700 have been on strike since Monday. Nearly half of them were women. A section of them stay put at the protest venue during night hours. Regularisation of service and pay revision were among the demands of the workers, who were employed by the contractors, who had agreements with the TNPL for undertaking job work.

According to sources, there are about 45 contractors, who take up work outsourced by the TNPL. They have employed about 2,500 workers belonging to different parts of Tiruchi, Karur, and Dindigul districts. Most of them have been working since the Mondipatti plant was launched in 2016. They rue that their services have not been regularised. Moreover, they do not get the minimum wages prescribed by the Centre. They are poorly paid.

‘I joined the company about nine years ago. But, we don’t have a guarantee that we will be called for duty tomorrow. We do not even get weekly off with salary,” says a worker on condition of anonymity.

The protesting workers say that they get ₹600 a day as wages. They get work for an average of 21 days in a month. There has been no increase in wages for two years. Some contractors have not paid Provident Fund and Employee State Insurance, the workers alleged.

“Many workers have put in 10 years of service. However, they do not figure in the payroll of the TNPL. We do not have the recognition that we are the employees of the TNPL,” says R. Kalaivanan, one of the agitating workers.

Regularisation of service for those completed five years of service, fixing of monthly pay at ₹20,000, provision of earned leave, paid weekly off, provision of House Rent Allowance and conveyance were among the demands of the workers. They insist on the visit of the Collector to hold talks with them.

The officials led by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Srirangam, met the agitators and held talks with them. The officials told them that they would take up their demands to the government. However, the agitators told the officials that they would not give up their agitation until their demands were met.