Unions at IndianOil protest restructuring plans
Mass internal opposition to IndianOil's restructuring plans is gathering pace, with unions and multiple employee bodies voicing protests.
This month (July 2025), the Indian Oil Officers Association (IOOA) and The Platform of Central Trade Unions submitted three separate letters highlighting their misgivings over the strategic, operational, and safety implications of the proposed changes. IOOA’s latest letter was sent on July 21 (2025) to oil minister Hardeep Puri.
"The current restructuring initiatives, marked by a distressing lack of consultation and transparency, are causing deep-seated anxiety and introducing grave risks to the operational safety, national service ethos, and morale of our nation's premier energy Maharatna," reads the letter. IOOA mentions IndianOil’s exceptional performance in 2023-24, noting a record after-tax profit of Rs39,619cr ($4.6bn), arguing that the current narrative wrongly portrays state-owned companies as inefficient.
The IOOA stresses that IndianOil is not a commercial entity but a "strategic arm of the state," with unmatched infrastructure, including nine refineries, 20,000-km of pipelines, and over 40,000 retail stations. IOOA warns that restructuring the pipelines division and declaring captive pipelines as "common carriers" introduces serious operational risks and cites concerns about compromised safety, the lack of incentives for investment, and the loss of control over critical installations such as aviation fuel stations and depots.
"This move effectively relinquishes state control over infrastructure vital for defence supplies and crisis management, handing it over to private entities whose priorities may not align with the national interest during an emergency or geopolitical instability," states the letter. Moreover, the association criticises indiscriminate cost-cutting, suggesting it would first impact maintenance, training, and safety audits.
IOOA urges the government to immediately pause the process and initiate a transparent, consultative approach to any restructuring efforts. Earlier, on July 8 (2025), Puri received a separate letter from The Platform of Central Trade Unions, comprising major union bodies such as INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS, and others.
This letter specifically opposed the proposed merger of 40 pipeline stations into the marketing division under the "Synergy’ model. "The Synergy model as proposed significantly weakens the safety and integrity of our pipeline infrastructure," says the letter.
"It places an overwhelming burden on a reduced team to manage expansive pipeline operations, which exponentially increases the risk of safety incidents."