Oil strike called off as government hardens stand

09 January 2009

Striking officials of Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC and GAIL also called off a three-day-old strike with the government cracking down threatening mass arrests under ESMA and NSA.

Officials of BPCL had already called off their strike while Hindustan Petroleum had not joined the strike.

"Yes, we have called off our agitation," reports quoted Sanjay Varshney, a vice president of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) as saying.

This brings the three-day-old strike has come to an end at all the public sector oil companies - IOC, GAIL, BPCL, ONGC and Petronet.

The companies will work on Saturday and Sunday - normally week-offs - to clear the backlog.

Earlier in the day, IOC served an ultimatum to the company's striking employees, asking them to resume work by Saturday or face consequences.