 "Nokia workers question transfer of sales division to Microsoft")
The latter has agreed to buy Nokia for €5.44 billion and the deadline to transfer the entire assets, including the Sriperumbudur factory, is March 31. However, the deadline is likely to be missed in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order. Last Friday, the apex court had ordered Nokia to give a Rs 3,500-crore guarantee before it transferred its Sriperumbudur facility, one of its biggest plants globally.
On Wednesday, the Finnish mobile maker had told its workers at Sriperumbudur it might have to cut workforce. The workers’ union said it would take any step to protect the employment of around 8,000 people, 50 per cent of whom are women.
Nokia India Thozhilalar Sangham president M Saravana Kumar, who represented the workers in a meeting between the management and the union, said: “We’ve raised the issue with the management and want to know how the income tax department allowed Nokia to transfer its sales entity alone. We feel it was done intentionally.”
When contacted, company officials declined to comment.
According to Kumar, Nokia India Sales Pvt Ltd came into existence on January 1, 2013 and on January 8, the I-T department ?surveyed? Nokia's factory on the alleged Rs 21,000-crore tax evasion case.
His argument is, when the I-T department raised the claim based on the records (books of Nokia since its inspection) it included the sales and marketing division; so how can the I-T department allow Nokia India Sales to be transferred to Microsoft?
According to sources, the I-T department's claim is on the royalty paid to the parent by Nokia India Pvt Ltd to download software to manufacture handsets in India - which has nothing to do with sales and marketing, which sells not only the products that are manufactured at the Sriperumbudur factory, but also the imported ones.
Of Nokia?s 9,000-odd employees, only about 350 are working in sales and marketing, while the rest including research and development (another 350) at Bangalore come under Nokia India Pvt Ltd, which is waging a legal battle with the Income Tax Department.
While stating that workers' anxiety is legitimate on the grounds that they want to protect their livelihood, dragging Nokia India Sales Pvt Ltd into issue might not help them.
"The management says it doesn't have any update from Microsoft on the deals. It also says it may reduce the number of workers in the factory since order flow has slowed down," said Kumar. Three months ago, the company had reduced the number of shifts from three to two, he added.
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The union is planning to approach the state government requesting it to interfere in the matter, as labour is a state subject. Besides, legal options are also being considered.
Nokia's factory employs around 8,000 people directly and another 25,000 indirectly. Since its inspection, the factory has produced 800 million handsets.