Film employees strike called off

The Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) has called off its strike following talks with Labour Minister T. Chellapandian. An announcement to this effect was made on April 10 evening.

FEFSI had been demanding a wage rise for its employees and the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) had remained unyielding. With the result, film production had been affected for the last few months. Several attempts to resolve the issue had failed. Even the talks held in the presence of Labour Secretary Mohan Pyare, IAS, recently failed to end the deadlock. Producers had decided to form a new union and continue film shootings. Opposing this, FEFSI called a strike on April 6 and sought the intervention of Labour Minister Chellapandian.

Conciliation talks were held at the Secretariat on April 10. First, Producers Council president S. A. Chandrasekhar and Film Artistes Association president Sarathkumar held talks with the Minister. Later, representatives of FEFSI led by its general secretary Siva met the Minister and presented their case.

After the tripartite talks, which lasted two hours, Minister Chellapandian told mediapersons, that agreement had been reached on the demands of 15 of the 23 unions affiliated to FEFSI and those of the remaining eight unions would be settled soon. Members of the FEFSI would return to work on April 11 (Wednesday), he said.