Work stops at Dabur’s Nepal factory

Work stopped at the Dabur Nepal's factory in southern Nepal on Friday after the Maoist union started negotiating with the management over their six-point demands, which include a pay hike.

The factory of Dabur Nepal, Dabur India's wholly-owned subsidiary and Nepal's biggest exporter, located in Birgunj town in southern Nepal, stopped production from the morning after the All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Revolutionary), the powerful trade union of the Maoists, gave a six-point demand to the management.

The demands include giving permanent jobs to seasonal workers and raising pay and perks.

The demands have been made mainly on behalf of the loaders, who are hired when the need arises.

Dabur Nepal officials said they expected the negotiations to be concluded and the factory to resume production soon.

Last month, loaders working for another Indian joint venture, Nepal Lever, had prevented work at its factory for two days with similar demands though they were not direct employees of the multinational but came through a contractor.

With the Maoists joining the government this year, labour trouble has increased as the trade unions associated with different parties have begun a fierce race for control of the working class.

Meanwhile, as national and international support to help the flood victims of the country continues to pour in following an urgent appeal made by the government, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also appealed "for $1.7 million to help more than 20,000 families affected by torrential monsoon rains, landslides and extensive flooding in the south of Nepal."

The Nepal Red Cross Society has estimated that more than 330,000 people have been affected due to floods.

"The hardest hit communities need to receive food, clean water, and access to sanitation facilities," said the secretary general of the Nepal Red Cross, Dev Ratna Dhakhwa. "But we also need to look beyond this emergency phase, towards helping people return to a normal way of life and enable vulnerable communities to be prepared for future disasters such as this," he adds.

The Nepal Red Cross has been leading the distribution of relief in the country and is working closely with the government, United Nations agencies and other aid organisations. Volunteers in each of the 33 affected districts have so far distributed rice, noodles, salt and sugar to around 30,000 families.