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Another meeting is expected to be held once again on Tuesday morning, at the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Labour (ACL), Sriperumbudur. This comes at a time when the company has informed its workers that the management would be looking at announcing a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) or Severance Package for its workers in near future.
"We asked them not to suspend the operations just because Nokia has stopped operations, since they have other customers. The labour department also asked them not to deny work to the employees since it is against the law. The labour office has also asked the company to bring an official who can take decisions, to the meeting scheduled on Tuesday," said Soundararajan, honorary president of the Foxconn India Workers' Union, which is recognised by the company.
The company, in a notice displayed at the boundary of the facilty, said, "We are not able to give jobs to all the workers, since we don't have orders to give jobs. Since the management has declared holiday for the factory, workers are asked not to come to the factory." It added that the company is trying to find a solution through dialogue and till that time the workers has to be patient and extend full co-operation.
The notice explained that the company is unable to give regular work to the employees due to drop in the business. Taking the welfare of the workers into account, it has provided holiday to the workers with full salary in the last 8 months. It has also offered various training classes to the workers.
Since March 2014, the company is facing the situation. First it was not able to provide regular works to around 100 workers and month by month it was increased to 850 workers, however salary was not kept on hold, it said.
The management has held talks with three Unions for five times and a tri-partie meeting in the office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Sriperumbudur was also held on December 12 and 18, 2014 while the next meeting will be held on December 26, 2014.
Muthukumar, president of the Foxconn India Workers' Union, said that the workers are not ready to go on leave and they want to continue to work in the factory. Since the workers were not allowed inside the factory today, they are waiting in front of the gate and a meeting between the Union leader and the management is expected to be held anytime now.
"They also said that they are ready to speak about settlement, which we did not agree with," he said. According to Muthukumar, while there was around 8,000 workers earlier in the facility, it has come down to 1306 workers at present. Including another 400 employees in other departments, there are around 1,700 employees, of which more than 1000 has been sent on leave by the company for lack of work orders, said the Union officials.
The company claims that after the suspension of operations of Nokia India's mobile handset manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, the business has declined and the efforts to bring in new business were also not successful. It is in this backdrop the company suggested to send the workers on leave.
Earlier in December, FIH Mobile Limited said, "We can confirm that our India operation, FIH India Private Limited, will be suspending all operations at our manufacturing facility in Chennai effective December 24, 2014. This action is being taken due to a change in that facility's customer base and a related change in the manufacturing requirements of our customers in India. The company is working with the government and the relevant labor unions to ensure that this action is carried out in a manner that follows all relevant laws and regulations and is fair to the approximately 1,700 employees who will be affected by this move, it added.
Meanwhile, the company operates another facility in sunguvanchathiram, Sriperumbudur, which has 120 workers and operates on network related products, according to the workers.
