Liquor baron Ramasamy Udayar has paid Binny Mills workers just Rs 10 crore of the Rs 32 crore due as first instalment of the settlement package.
This payment has been received by some 600 employees constituting of the juniormost rung of the employees.
On an average, workers were to be paid Rs.1.25 lakh plus gratuity as per the understanding the union and the management had before the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
The deal requires the management to pay all permanent employees of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills, 50 per cent of their entitlement by May 15 and the balance by mid-September.
Binny's VRS, has already made history with all but 200 of the 4,500-strong workforce opting for the golden handshake.
Originally, it was intended to retain some 1000 workers and re-open the mill in the first quarter of 1999. According to union sources, while making the part-payment top management officials asked for some more time to pay rest of the workers who had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme.
It was also said that some of the city's leading NBFCs that had been appraoched for loans were yet to act on Binny's application for funds. Even this Rs.10 crore is money raised against the personal assets of the top management, it was pointed out.
Tired of the long wait and having given up all hopes of the mill being revived in any form, workers have chosen not to raise their voice against the delayed payments as it is felt that there is no other way out. Also, one section of the union feels it cannot take on the management without state government support and hence does not see any merit in antagonising or embarrassing the government.
Thus when the management chose to pay the juniormost workers first, it was acceeded to although it was earlier decided that any part-payment, whenever made, would first be for those with the longest service record.
