1650 Balco Employees Opt For Vrs, 850 May Get Nod

The Sterlite-controlled Bharat Aluminium Co (Balco) has seen around 1,650 employees opting for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) that was offered by the company to almost 6,300 employees in August this year.

The company, however, will offer the package only to 850 employees at the moment and would consider the rest at a later stage. The scheme was floated in July and closed on August 16.

The VRS package offers an average of Rs 4 lakh to an officer and double the amount to an executive.

A similar scheme was offered by Balco during January when the response was around 1,300 applications and only 600 applications were accepted. This had pulled down the employee strength to around 6,400 employees. Balco, prior to privatisation had around 7,000 employees.

Around 450 applications are from Balco's ailing Bidhanbag unit in West Bengal which currently employs around 550 employees. It is understood that all the 450 workers of this unit would be considered for the VRS package.

The company's industrial relations has been poor after its recent disinvestment. Immediately upon management control changing hands, the employee unions struck work and the plant in Chhattisgarh had to remain shut for almost 3 months.