Report on excess charge for unloading vaccine boxes in Kerala baseless: CITU

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the trade union wing of the CPI(M), on Thursday dismissed as ''baseless and untrue'' a report that headload workers demanded excess charge to unload boxes carrying COVID-19 vaccine at a centre here.

As per the report in a section of the media, headload workers belonging to the union asked for excess money to unload the vaccine boxes and refused to unload it until they were paid theamount they demanded.

CITU Thiruvananthapuram district president C Jayanbabu said there had been no wage dispute in this regard and all vaccine loads that arrived in the state after the commencement of the vaccination drive were unloaded free of charge by the workers.

This particular load did not contain any vaccine, but only the carrier boxes to transport the vaccine bought by the state government to different places, he said.

"The workers did not indulge in any dispute regarding the wages...," he said here in a statement. He said CITU workers were the ones who are involved day and night in Covid defense activities and nowhere has there been any dispute over wages.

During the first wave, these workers contributed Rs 5 crore to the Chief Minister''s Disaster Relief Fund, he added.