Shipping ministry issues standard norms for special voluntary retirement

The posts falling vacant as result of SVRS will be abolished

The Ministry of Shipping has issued Standard Guidelines for Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme (SVRS) and asked the major port trusts to follow them, while sending their SVRS proposals for approval from the Ministry. As per the guidelines, the posts falling vacant as result of SVRS would be abolished and will not be eligible for revival in any case.

The guidelines, which has been duly approved by the Minister for Shipping, elaborate that the scheme will be applicable to all employees of the port who have completed 10 years of service and completed 40 years of age, on submission of a written application.

"There will be no recruitment against vacancies arising due to SVRS. All posts falling vacant as a result of SVRS shall be abolished and they shall not be eligible for revival in any case nor will be accounted for the purpose of computation of any matching savings while creating posts in the Port Trust. The order to accept Special Volunatry Retirement request and abolition of the post will be issued simultaneously," says the guideline.

The board should ensure that SVRS is extended to primarily such employees whose serivice may be dispensed without detriment to the Port Trust while it should take care not to give the option to the highly skilled and qualified worker with possibilities explored to accommodate them in the Departments of the Port.

The scheme should be applied only to the regular employees of the Port among others and the expenditure of the SVRS should be from the internal resources of the Port. The SVRS should be beneficial to the Port on the basis of a comparitive study on the normative retirement expenditure as well as the expenditure on SVRS, it says.

The Scheme will be open for a period of six months.

It further adds that the employee will give three months notice as per the conditions of service applicable to the employee. The employee opting for SVRS would be entitled to an ex-gratia payment equivalant to one and a half months emoluments (basic pay plus DA) for each completed years of service or the value of the emoluments that would have become payable for the balance months of service left, whichever is less.

The port will have the right not to grant voluntary retirement by recording the reasons in writing. The employee who seeks voluntary retirement would be eligible to get other terminal benefits such as balance in the employees' PF account, cash equivalent of accumulated earned leave, gratuity, pension as per the rules and regulations.

However, an employee who seeks voluntary retirement under the scheme shall not be eligible for re-employment in Ports. A complete data/record of all those employees of the Port who have availed SVRS shall be retained on the website to ensure that no person out of these shall be retaken in Port. However, there will be no bar for re-employment of such employees in Government Sector, it added.

The Ministry has sought all the major port trusts to follow send their proposals for Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme (SVRS) standard guidelines, which has to be followed by major port trusts while implementing SVRS in their ports.

India's 7,500-km coastline has 13 major ports of which 12 are run by the government. In 2013, the previous government has informed the Loksabha that it is contemplating a special VRS programme to reduce the declining profit margins of the major ports, according to reports. Reports came out last year also suggest that the Visakhapatnam Port was planning offer a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to 1,500 of its 4,500 employees.