Nearly 4,000 employees of Budge Budge Jute Mill, on the southern fringes of the city, have been rendered jobless, after the management declared suspension of work on April 10. The fate of the workers depends on a tripartite meeting, to be held on Friday.

The mill falls in the Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency, which CPM candidate Samik Lahiri is contesting for the fourth time. Pitted against him is Trinamul Congress candidate Sougata Roy, also the party MLA from Dhakuria.

The mill’s Citu-controlled Bengal Chatkal Mazdoor Union met labour minister Mohammad Amin at Writers’ Buildings on Monday, seeking his intervention in reopening the mill.

Union president Ratan Kumar Bagchi said minister Amin has convened Friday’s tripartite talks. “He is taking a keen interest in the matter and wants the mill reopened at the earliest.”

Union general secretary Dilip Dasgupta said trouble had been brewing at the mill for some time. “The authorities have come up with a number of proposals that are unacceptable to us. They have suggested a cut in wages and withholding of retirement benefits,” he said.

Dasgupta alleged that 1995 onwards, nearly 950 workers had died of various reasons but the company did not pay their families any gratuity. “On Sunday, the management put up a list of 650 employees scheduled to retire shortly but said there will be no retirement benefits,” he said.

According to Dasgupta, the management had made it clear that the staff due for superannuation would not be replaced by permanent employees.

“Also, there will not be any retirement benefits for them. They can continue to work on a daily wage of Rs 130, the management told us,” said Dasgupta.

But, some of the employees scheduled to retire are agitated. They want their statutory dues paid to them. Dasgupta said the employees’ demands, including payment of gratuity due since 1995, are justified.

The union organised a gate-meeting of workers on Sunday and explained the situation to them, 24 hours before the stop-work declaration. “We were anticipating something drastic by the management. The suspension-of-work notice was slapped on the mill without discussing it with us, “ said Dasgupta.

Management representatives of the mill could not be contacted, despite repeated attempts.

However, Trinamul MLA Sougata Roy said the mill was shut down because of the “adamant attitude” adopted by a section of workers belonging to Citu. “The problem could have been resolved if the discussions had started earlier,” he said.