The management of Surya Nepal Private Limited (SNPL) has decided to award “ad hoc” raise of Rs 400 per month in an effort to settle the dispute in the company.

The raise will be awarded “to that section of workmen not eligible to the minimum wage increase already made by the Company”, according to a press statement by SNPL.

“The Company reiterates that the Management stands by the well established viewpoint that the demands raised by Surya Nepal’s Mazdoor Union had no legal basis whatsoever. The FNCCI had also formally communicated to the company that it also held the view that only workers whose wages were lower than the amount specified in the gazette notification were eligible for the differential amount.”

It said that its decision to award ad hoc raise was made “with due respect to the recommendation made by the civil society members present at a meeting along with the CDO of Bara District, SP Bara, President of Birganj Chamber of Commerce and Industries, lawyers, human rights activists, media representatives, Labour Office representatives and Trade Union Federation representatives who had met to resolve the issue.”

“The recommendation made and agreed to by all was in consideration of the highly volatile and unmanageable law and order situation that has developed in the Birganj Industrial Corridor following 17 Surya Nepal’s Simra Factory managers being held hostage by few of its workmen for over 34 hours which crisis had ended at around 3AM on the same day,” the SNPL management added.