Workers of India's third largest oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd have decided to go on an indefinite strike from January 15 to protest against campus recruitment of new staff and "autocratic" management.

"Hindustan Petroleum Management Staff Association served a strike notice on HPCL chairman and managing director M B Lal on December 22, 2003 to go on a complete strike from January 15, 2004," the union said in a release on Friday.

Workers of HPCL, which has over 4,800 petrol stations all over the country, had earlier this year gone on a three-day strike to protest against the government's move to privatise the company.

The strike had, however, not affected supplies of petroleum products as other oil firms were asked to fill-in.

"The notice of strike has been served in view of the style of functioning of the management, complete demoralisation of the officers and the decision-making in the organisation," the association said, adding it was also contemplating to resort to legal recourse and seek judicial intervention to improve the performance of the company.

The association charged HPCL management of ignoring the Department of Public Enterprises guideline on PSUs (like HPCL) for recruitment of officers through an all India competitive examination followed by personal interview.

"However, HPCL management, in their own wisdom, has resorted to mass recruitment of management trainees/graduate engineer trainees through campus interviews," it said.