The Labour Office, Birgunj said that the demands of striking workers of 14 factories in the Parsa-Bara Industrial Estate had been addressed and that they had gone back to work. 

The factory hands had been obstructing daily operations at the manufacturing 

plants for the last one year to press their demand for greater facilities. 

According to the Labour office, the workers had filed a complaint against the factories over their pay scale. Information officer Sundar Shrestha said they had sorted out almost all the issues.

The 14 factories where the workers had disrupted work are Tanush Textiles, Adarsha Polymers, Narayani Modern Pulses, Adhunik Dal Udhyog, Shree Agro, Narayani Leather Manufacturing, Shivashakti Packaging, Aerotech, Kewisaam Aluminum, Ankita Textiles, Araniko Processing, Shivashakti Ghee, Nepal Pharmaceuticals and Asian Distillery. Shrestha said disagreements over pay scale and benefits were the major issues between the workers and management. According to him, the Labour Office played a key role in helping the parties reach an amicable settlement. 

Similarly, 46 workers of various other factories had filed complaints with the Labour Office. “Among them, 11 cases have been cleared so far,” said Shrestha. 

The Parsa-Bara industrial corridor contains 535 factories employing 17,000 workers. The factory hands are represented by 31 trade unions. 

In 2015-16, workers of Annapurna Vegetables and Projio Chem demonstrated against the management’s decision to ‘cut the facilities’ being given to the workers and ‘uneven transfers’ of workers. A number of workers were injured during the protest. 

According to the Labour Office, it has started providing compensation payment to the workers following which they have ended their strike. One of the workers has already received payment while five other injured workers will get their money soon, the office said.