To initiate the mediation process, the department will first mobilize its Hetauda-based labor office.[break]
“The office will hold consultations with both the management and workers from Wednesday to convince both the parties to solve the dispute through talks,” Man Bahadur Biswokarma, director general of the DoL, told Republica.
“If the dispute cannot be settled at the local level, we will ask the Central Labor Relations Committee to intervene in the matter.”
The Basamadi-based plant of Unilever Nepal has remained closed since Sunday after the workers launched a strike, demanding 50 percent hike in salary and allowances, interest free housing loan of Rs 1 million per person and house maintenance fee of Rs 100,000 per person per year.
These demands were placed before the management in the first week of Nov. Since then, workers and the management had held 21 rounds of talks, and most of these talks were mediated by the Labor Office in Hetauda.
“Despite these efforts, the factory was shut down, which was unfortunate,” Bishwokarma said.
The Unilever management has said the demands were placed at a time when the total remuneration of staff was raised by 69 percent between 2009 and 2011, as against rise in company´s profit of 37.3 percent in the same period.
The Basamadi factory manufactures Lux and Lifebuoy brands of toilet soaps, and Pepsodent and Close Up toothpastes.
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