Already 5,000 employees opted for voluntary retirement scheme
Nokia announced that it would suspend operations at its facility in Sriperumpudur near Chennai from November 1
Chennai: Finnish telecom major Nokia announced that it would suspend operations at its facility in Sriperumpudur near Chennai from November 1. This has raised questions about the job future of its 1000-odd employees, including 851 operators.With no further order inflows from Microsoft, the company said it was left with no choice but to put its operations on ice.
“Microsoft has informed Nokia that it will be terminating the manufacturing services defined in the agreement with effect from November 1, 2014. In the absence of further orders from Microsoft, Nokia will suspend handset production at the Sriperumbudur facility from 1st November,” a Nokia spokesperson said.The facility was producing handsets for Micro-soft, after the software giant was unable to buy it out as part of the global $7.2 billion deal in April.
“Due to the liens on the Nokia handset manufacturing facility in Chennai, the site was left out of the Devices and Services deal with Microsoft, which closed on April 25, 2014.
As a consequence, Nokia entered into a transitional services agreement (TSA) with Microsoft to address their immediate production needs and keep the factory operational,” the Nokia official said.
But after the company got entangled in a '21,000-crore income tax dispute with the Indian government, IT authorities froze its assets.Following this uncertainty, in April, Nokia introduced a voluntary retirement scheme at the factory. At that time, the plant employed about 6,600 full-time workers. Though the company informed that over 5,000 employees accepted the voluntary retirement sch-eme, for now, the company still has about 1,100 employees.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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