The Orissa government is considering a plan to retrench the workers of Hirakud Industrial Works (HIW) and Idcol Rolling Mill located at Hirakud through voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and voluntary separation scheme (VSS). However, no final decision has been taken in the matter yet.
Both the units were privatised and the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA ) was signed by the state owned Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idcol) with Kolkata based Varsha Fabrics Private Ltd. (VFPL) on 10 July 2006.
In a high level meeting chaired by the chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy recently, it was agreed to consider the applicability of the VRS/VSS to the existing employees with payment of their other dues on a priority basis.
Rough estimates show the total pending dues of about 300 employees including the VRS/VSS benefit to be about Rs 16 crore excluding the interest on provident fund. This amount may be arranged jointly by Idcol and the public enterprises department and will be claimed from existing owner of the units, VFPL or prospective owners through court order, sources added.
At the same time, Idcol will move the Orissa High Court to allow for re-tendering of the units as the existing owner has failed to honour the commitment on paying the dues of the employees and running the units as per the tripartite agreement entered with the government.
The Cabinet Committee on Dis-investment (CCD) headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik will take a final view in the matter. Subsequent to the CCD’s decision on 15 January 2009, Idcol moved the Orissa High Court for cancellation of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) signed with VFPL. Since the legal process will take long time to settle, Idcol had suggested four options to the industry department for operationalisation of the units through interim order of the High Court. The options are, handing over the management of the units to Orissa Power Transmission Corporation (OPTCL), handing over the units to Idcol to run them under ‘leave and license’ arrangement, asking Idcol to run the units for an interim period with financial assistance from the government and going for fresh disinvestment with permission of the High Court. On the other hand, the workers’ unions have come out strongly against the government’s move. They have demanded their redeployment in other units of Idcol and payment of current salary.
Besides, Idcol should pay Rs 20 crore pending dues without any delay, the workers pleaded.
“Without rehabilitating the employees and paying their dues, the government is pushing 300 families into uncertainty. If the government delays the payments, the employees will be forced to adopt extreme measures to press their demand”, M S Kumar, general secretary, HIW Workers’ Union said.