The steel ministry has asked Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) to roll back the retirement age of its employees to 58 years from the present 60 years, which would result in severance of an additional 8,000 employees, over and above the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).
Steel ministry sources said the ministry was unhappy with the slow pace of manpower reduction in the public sector giant and felt that voluntary retirement schemes were not sufficient.
However, they added that this was not a directive from the steel ministry and the ultimate decision rests with the steel major