The Hindu Business Line : Voltas retrenches 450 workers

A group of employees standing outside Voltas unit in Hyderabad on Saturday. The company retrenched a large number of them on Friday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Nov. 27

TENSION and violence broke out at the manufacturing facility of Voltas, a Tata Group company, at Balanagar here on Friday evening with the agitated workers stalling the operations and holding up the top management officials in the factory for nearly 12 hours opposing the alleged `unilateral' and `illegal' decision of the management to retrench nearly 50 per cent of the workforce.

The management on Friday afternoon intimated the Labour Commission here its intention to retrench 450 workers on `last come first go basis' out of a total of 836 employees.

Following this, the workers under the aegis of the Voltas Employees Association affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) staged protest demonstrations in the premises of the unit and demanded the management to immediately withdraw the retrenchment notice.

Police were deployed at the unit to ensure law and order on the request of the management when a few enraged workers assaulted a couple of top officials at the unit.

The workers' union leaders reached the scene late evening and managed to convince the management by night to keep in abeyance the retrenchment process. According to the workers' leaders, negotiations were going on for the last couple of months with the management on the issue of fresh round of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).

While the management proposed Rs 3.5 lakh per employee, the union was insisting on payment of around Rs 15 lakh.

The union leaders argued that the Electrolux management that acquired the compressor unit of Voltas had given VRS payment of Rs 7 lakh per employee a couple of years ago and Voltas should pay more keeping in view the high value assets of the company.

Admitting that the management has approached the Labour Commission with the proposal to retrench 450 workers, the Voltas Vice-President, Mr Jassawala, told Business Line that there was nothing illegal in the initiative. "We were exercising the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.

As per law, we raised the application with the Labour Commissioner, which would negotiate with both the management and workers on the issue and arrive at a decision."

Stating that the situation is now under control and the workers resumed the operations, Mr Jassawala said the management would continue negotiations with the workers' union from Monday and expects peaceful and quick retrenchment.

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