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Show cause notice issued to HLL employees

The management-worker stand-off at the Garden Reach Factory in Calcutta of the Hindustan Lever Ltd deepened further on Tuesday with the company issuing show-cause notice to a number of officials of the union, who accused the management of planning to sack 430 workers.

The Hindustan Lever Sramik Karamchari Congress president, Kamal Tewari, alleged in a statement that in a bid to curtail the number of workers, the management shifted machinery from the toilet soap department, against which the union "lawfully protested".

The management, however, "issued show-cause letter to the general secretary and four other union officials on concocted grounds," Tewari said in his statement.

When contacted, the HLL management denied the allegation of removal of machinery and said only one equipment, not in use for over two years, was shifted to a new project site where the company is investing in new technology for soap manufacture.

On the show-cause notice, the management said the contractor entrusted with the job of shifting the equipment was, "prevented illegally" and hence management had to initiate, "appropriate disciplinary action".

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