PSU OIL SECTOR STRIKE - TRUTH & SENTIMENTS

During last few days the Indian Media has maligned the good name of Oil Sector employees even comparing us to terrorists (Mumbai 26/11) and black mailers. This has hurt the sentiments of the Oil Sector Employees and their near & dear ones more than being cheated by the Indian Babudom of their well deserved wages. Monetary loss can be made up. Loss of prestige is definitely difficult to tolerate. The Indian media, in a well choreographed crusade, led by His Highness the Petroleum Secretary, has damaged the reputation of the Oil Sector Employees, built by people like Col. Wahi, Sh. Subir Raha and many others.

This is our attempt to undo to some extent the misinformation spread by the Ministry led media. First and foremost we are not "Terrorists". It was "Indian" Oil employees who were there at Kargil, rubbing shoulders with our brave Jawans, ensuring smooth supplies of POL products to the army. Please remember we were on the Indian side. Even today when the Indian media shows photographs of Kargil war, a burning oil tanker is shown. We are there at Siachen and Barmer and Andaman Nicobar and Nagaland taking care of the energy needs (from transport to cooking fuels) of our Forces. Our question is how many Indian Companies, including Public Sectors, work or get an opportunity to work for the security at our borders. In short it is the "Jawans" of the Oil Sector who are "fighting" while most of us sleep comfortably and enjoy our vacations. Please put your hand on your heart and tell us are we really TERRORISTS?

How many of you know that number of Public Sector Oil Companies were incorporated after the multinationals oil companies did not support the Indian Government in fighting the Chinese. The Chinese war was fought in 1962 and IndianOil was incorporated in 1964. HPC was born out of Caltex and BPC out of Burmah Shell.

The media, under the choreography of the Ministry, depicted the Oil Sector Employees as having a party time sitting in AC rooms and enjoying vacations in snow covered mountains. Please note most of our field locations are in shift operations which means that people work round the clock and to attend to their duties at 6 'O'clock, the officers get up at around 4 'O'clock in the morning and brave extreme weather conditions to reach to their field locations. How many of us would like to travel under foggy conditions at 5 'O'clock in the morning? How many of us would like to operate a location at Leh at (–)25 degree centigrade? How many of us would like to work at a Rig for 24 hours wearing dangrees, oil smeared on their face in monsoon winds and when the fisherman has been warned not to enter in the sea? How many of you would like to work 30 days in a month without a break? We are not comparing ourselves with the brave Jawans but if the Jawans are sacrificing their lives for the country then we are also doing a yeomen service to the nation by performing our duty braving such extreme environment and definitely deserve not to be called "Deshdrohis".

We do not deny that we are given good facilities by our Management but for heaven sake we earn them and have every right to enjoy them. It seems people are envious of the same. Have we ever said that other people should not get good facilities in life? Then why target the Oil Sector employees? Is there a hidden agenda behind the choreographed media blitz?

We have been branded as insensitive towards the needs of the common man. How many of you know that the last pay revision was done in 1997? This issue of wage revision etc. was under discussion with the Management / Ministry for last two and a half years. The wage revision is overdue since January 2007 and whatever is decided now shall be applicable till 2017. One of our demands is to make this wage revision a five yearly process. Why the Navratnas who are empowered to decide the wages of their employees should go to the Ministry with begging bowls? Because if the profit making PSUs start deciding their own wages the Babudom will loose all control. Do you know that the respective Boards have already approved the wage structure which we are asking for?

You would say that if you are not satisfied with your wages then why not leave the company. Yes some of us are waiting for the wage revision and if the same is not satisfactory would leave for greener pastures and soon the PSUs would be sold to private players and then my dear you would either pay very high prices for the fuel or the pumps owned by these private companies would remain closed as they are now since 2007. Would you be happy then?

The salary figures given by the Hon'ble Minister are far from reality. If the Hon'ble Minister desires to give us the kind of salary he says we are getting then I think there should not have been any strike and the Ministry can be faulted for not "properly communicating" these figures to the officers. We assure you if the salaries, as communicated by the Hon'ble Minister / Media are "granted" to us we will all vote for the Hon'ble Minister.

This brings us to the next point that why did we choose this time for calling strike? For one we had lost our patience with the Ministry giving us false promises on earlier occasions. Second we have been talking on this issue since last six-seven years and third with the polls on the horizon we were expecting the Government to be favourable to our demand. Did you know that the strike was initially planned for 2nd December and cancelled because of the terrorist strike at Mumbai? And we are labelled as "insensitive" to the needs of the general public.

Why did not the media tell the general public on 2nd December itself of the same? It would not have done any good to the TRP ratings of the news channel. This very same media declared Manjunath as a martyr and the oil sector employees as officers doing duty under extreme conditions. My dear Sir, Oil sector PSUs have given many Manjunaths to this country some of whom are no longer with us but most of them are still dedicated to the service of this Nation.

The media which has labelled the oil sector PSU employees as terrorists is the same which had shown the 26/11 happening "live", which is now well known had helped the terrorists in their plans. This fact was known to them during the live broadcast. May be labelling Oil Sector PSU employees as terrorists was a part of larger game plan of TRP ratings.

When did you last hear of a major strike by Oil Sector PSU? None in last forty odd years!

Why was the view point of Oil Sector PSU Association/Employee not shown in the media? Why did the media not show the salary slip of 1.25 Lacs which they were claiming was what the Oil Sector entry level officer was getting?

The Government had appointed an expert committee, which had recommended scales for Oil sector PSUs after taking 18 months do so. Why were the scales recommended by the experts again referred to a committee of Secretaries (comprising of IAS officers)? Will a committee comprising of IAS officers allow a higher salary to a PSU Chairman? By the way one of our demands was higher pay scales for our Directors and Chairman. This demand was supported by an entry level officer not because he dreamt of becoming the Chairman of the company one fine day but he wanted his Chairman to stand tall in front of these Babus and be able to rub shoulders with his colleagues in Corporate circle.

Are you aware that out of the total revenue from the sale of petroleum products more than 50% goes to Govt revenue and that addition to the exchequer only allows the government to pay salaries to the other government sectors which includes bureaucrats, regulatory bodies, ministers etc.
Do you have such a short memory as to forget the 2005 accident in the western offshore oil platform where several of ONGC officers lost there lives?

Can you spot on map the insurgency infested jungles of Assam, Tripura and Nagaland where thousands of our "DESHDROHI" officers work day and night on rigs, installations and field parties to provide subsidized petrol for your luxury cars?

Did you know that the Oil Sector turnover was Rs. 5.5 lakh crore which is 15% of India's GDP, contributes 64% of gross revenue of the Government, shared subsidy burden of Rs. 1,40,000 crores thereby saving the common man from the impact of high fuel prices? Last year ONGC paid Rs 22,000 crores for subsidy, Rs 30,000 crores as taxes and Rs 12,000 Crores as dividend.

You can also read the appended copies of letter to Minister dt. 03.01.09 and 05.01.09 and a press release by OSOA dt. 03.01.09. The press release was never bought to public knowledge by the media because it did not contribute to the TRP ratings.

In future there will not be any strikes of oil sector PSUs because there may not be many capable & daring officers left to "protest and economically terrorise" the nation.

We hope we have been able to communicate our feelings to you. Next time you fill-up your petrol tank or eat your food please remember us as one who service this great nation and not as "Deshdrohis".

"rocky star" <rockystar2009@gmail.com>