Nalco told to freeze appointments

The government has asked National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) to freeze recruitments and take other cost-cutting measures to tide over the present global economic downturn.

“The aim of the company should be to lower its cost of production. For this, labour cost is one of the crucial factors... Recruitment should not be made in normal circumstances,” a senior government official in the privy of Nalco’s recent quarterly performance review said.

The board of government-owned navratna company has already decided to put on hold the recruitment of nearly 700 employees to cut down company’s operating expenses amid falling demand and prices of the metal. The country’s second largest aluminium producer Nalco was to recruit people for manning its additional production lines in the plants in Orissa. The company has embarked on a Rs 4,400-crore expansion, which would increase its aluminium capacity to 460,000 tonnes from 350,000 tonnes by August this year.