This Monday, APM Terminals India -a part of AP Moller Maersk- stated it is resuming operations at its container freight station at Nava Sheva. This had been shut down last month due to incidents of violence by retrenched workers.
“On September 28th, 2018, APM Terminals had to suspend operations at the facility as the safety of 500 employees was under threat. Keeping our people safe is our primary responsibility, and hence, a difficult yet unavoidable decision had to be taken after two separate instances of violence were instigated against them by some local violent elements in August and September,” said APM Terminals in a statement.
“After intense discussions with all the concerned authorities, and having received the necessary assurances and security for our people moving forward, we have now taken the careful decision to restart our services in the area,” it added.
As reported by economictimes.indiatimes.com, this is one of the two facilities of APM at Nava Sheva. It has 7 CFS facilities across the country.
In February, APM Terminals decided to retrench 99 contract workers at the facility to streamline business and as part of cost cutting measures.
On August 3, a bus carrying 17 employees of the CFS was stopped. The employees were pulled out, and allegedly manhandled by a group of retrenched workers. They were threatened with more violence if they showed up at work. APM appealed to the local police and got protection. Unfortunately, further violence prompted the decision to shut down the facility, given that the safety of employees was at stake.
