Employees of Salboni currency printing press, one of the two under the Reserve Bank of India, have stopped working overtime citing health reasons, reported the Hindustan Times.
The paper reported that when the employees go back to the normal 9-hour shift instead of the 12 hours they did since demonetization was announced, the number of notes printed daily will fall from 46 million to 40 million.
According to Factly, there are four printing presses that print and supply banknotes. These are at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, Nasik in Maharashtra, Mysore in Karnataka, and Salboni in West Bengal.
“The presses in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are owned by the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), a wholly owned company of the Government of India. The presses in Karnataka and West Bengal are owned by the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank. The new Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPMIPL) in Mysuru is a joint Venture between BRBNMPL and SPMCIL, with a production capacity of 12,000 million tones.”
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The employees said the overtime since demonetization kicked in was breaking their back.
Some of the employees began complaining of lower back pain, disturbed sleep and overall physical and mental stress, reported HT quoting sources.
“We entered an agreement with the management on December 14 for working on 12-hour shifts for two weeks. The agreement ended on December 27 and we have refused to continue with it,” a member of Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL) Employees’ Association told HT on condition of anonymity.
From Wednesday the press has switched to two nine-hour and one six-hour shift.
