Swc Plans Vrs, Braces For Workers Backlash
The focus at the Manu Chhabria-controlled Shaw Wallace and Co (SWC) appears to be shifting back in a major way to the employees with whom the company may be forced into another round of hostilities, following its decision to shift the corporate office from Calcutta to Mumbai. SWC is now drawing up plans to relocate people, offer a voluntary retirement scheme and even retrain them for specific jobs, sources said yesterday.
In a sense, the decision to shift office to Mumbai was also prompted by the growing tensions between the company management and the employees federation, though the management would not comment on this.
According to sources, the management had been seeking to discuss the issue of relocating of manpower for quite some time now, but had not met with much response from the employees federation side.
Sources said the downsizing of the Calcutta office was also a move from SWC to get away from regular interruptions from the employees side. Besides, there are allegations that confidential documents have been leaked out from SWC to the companys key business rivals, and the companys management is also learnt to have taken a serious note of this.
Sensitive information on the company has been found to have been leaked to business opponents, sources said. In this background, the company also thought it fit to move its decision-making seat to Mumbai and avoid further problems.
Besides, there were reported to be earlier instances at Calcutta where senior executives were threatened and even searched by employees and at least one executive director of the company was also subjected to this treatment.
The management appears also to be worried about the role played by the top brass of the head office union at SWC, who are also holding key positions in the employees federation. At one time believed to be close to the management, sources suggest that some of these people could also be playing a major role in the standoff against the management.
Sources said sections of the employees had even tried to raise the issue of the shifting of the corporate office at the recent Company Law Board hearings as well, without success. The problems increased as some people were trying to carry on their personal agenda against the management, sources said yesterday.
On another front, with the SWC management being required to work closely with the financial institutions, merchant bankers and banks to get the company back on the rails, logistically it made much more sense to shift the corporate office to Mumbai, where the FIs are located.
In some cases, retraining the people for other functions may even lead to promotions for them, sources pointed out.
According to sources, the company is clear that it does not want to move out of the state of West Bengal in terms of operations. In fact, SWC is ready to invest over Rs 40 crore in Bhadrakali itself, sources pointed out. But there is no point in keeping idle white-collar people in Wallace House, the sources added. In fact, Wallace House can also be fruitfully utilised later on, after the relocation is over.