Ici Asked To Stop Vrs Offer

The West Bengal labour minister, Santi Ranjan Ghatak, at a tripartite meeting yesterday asked the management of ICI to stop implementation of the companys voluntary scheme (VRS) and transfer of employees from the headquarters at Calcutta immediately.

Ghatak said through implementation of VRS by the ICI management the number of employees in its Calcutta headquarters had been brought down only to 75 from 500.

In the case of the Rishra unit of the company the number of employees had been reduced to 400 from 2,200.

The minister said trade union leaders had complained to the state government that the ICI management had told the employees either to accept VRS or work at reduced wages.

 

The employees were also being transfered from the Calcutta office to other states where the company had been implementing its expansion programme.

Ghatak said he had asked the management to inform the government why they had adopted the plan of expansion in other states while it was a large unit in the state having scope for further investments here.

The decision to shift its activities from the state would affect the economy of West Bengal and jeopardise the fate of the employees working there.

The labour minister who also met the trade union leaders of the Bengal Immunity Limited belonging to INTUC and CITU said the company was allegedly being unable to pay the wages of the employees regularly. Ghatak had asked the trade union leaders to submit a report to him detailing the present situation in the company.