A worker stands to get Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh depending on his experience
An empty staff bus entering Nokia factory premises on Friday, the official last working day of the $500-million Sriperumbudur handset making unit of the Finnish telecom major. The company announced that it was suspending operations from November 1
Chennai: It was a heady mix of emotions at Vanniyar Kalayana Mandapam at Sriperumbudur where members of the Nokia India Thozhilalar Sangam (NITS) had come together to seal the labour settlement issue. After much drama and in-fighting, nearly 360 of the 400 employees agreed to the severance package put forth by the Nokia management at the tripartite meeting held on Thursday.
As per the current agreed package, a worker stands to get Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh depending on his experience, excluding PF and gratuity. They have been assured of salary for the months of November and December.
“This package is about Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh higher than the VRS package proposed by the company a few months back,” said S. Prabhu, general secretary of NITS. The disbursement of the package is expected to begin from November 3.
With the Nokia management serving an ultimatum to the union to convey their acceptance by October 31, the agenda of the hurriedly-called meeting seemed more to get the workers’ consent on the package rather than any discussion.
“The company had told the union that either it get the consent of the workers for the settlement package or it shall go in accordance with the government labour rules, which is 15 days of salary per every working year,” said V. Natarajan, vice president of NITS.
The meeting, which went on for three hours, saw heated arguments from a section of workers who demanded “job surety and not priority if in case, the factory starts production again.”
Voting against the package, around 40 workers staged a protest in front of the venue stating that the company should also give an assurance in writing that if the factory was reopened by Nokia or any other management they would be given job preference.
However, with a majority of workers who attended the meeting giving their consent to go with the proposed severance package, the union submitted the results of the voting to the labour department officials.
In a release, Nokia said, “We can confirm that constructive discussions with Union representatives and the labour commissioner have resulted in agreement on a financial package for Chennai factory personnel.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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