Kochi: The two-week-long agitation by a section of the staff members of the Muthoot Financial Services took an ugly turn on Tuesday with those supporting and opposing the strike creating a tense situation at the company headquarters here and managing director George Alexander Muthoot staging a sit-in protest at the venue.
The company has threatened to close down 300 of its branches in the state even as labour minister T.P. Ramakrishnan has convened a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday to resolve the issues.
A tense situation prevailed at the head office of the company on Banerji Road as some employees wanted to enter the office while members of the CITU-led union blocked them.
The police tried to prevent a clash between the two groups as they raised slogans in support and against the strike. Mr. Alexander Muthoot held a sit-in protest alleging that the police had failed to facilitate the entry of the staff to the office.
Mr. Muthoot said the police were acting hand in glove with the strikers and did not provide protection to the majority of the staff members who were ready to work. He said the present strike was spearheaded by a minority group associated with the CITU and that majority was opposed to it. He also alleged that the business of the company in the last two years in the state had dwindled to four percent from 10 due to the non-cooperation of the staff while in all other states the company was having flourishing business with rapid growth.
He said 300 out of the 611 branches in the state had been on a forced closure due to agitation and that the company had no option but to shut them down if the strike continued.
The union leaders, however, alleged that the NBFC had been flouting all labour laws for the past many years with the staff-having 15-20 years of experience drawing a salary of `15,000-`20,000 per month.
