Philips Set To Offer Vrs At Pune

As part of its restructuring and cost-cutting exercise, Philips India has decided to pare its workforce by 250 personnel through its voluntary retirement scheme at its Pimpri and Loni plants here.

Earlier, Philips had launched VRS to cut down surplus workforce at its Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta manufacturing facilities wherein 300-plus jobs were cut during the 2-month period ended July 1997.

Unlike other works where faced strong resistance, K R Ehrnreich, president and chief executive officer of Philips India, said the company has received good response from the workers and the unions in Pune region. The company is offering five to six years salary as compensation under the VRS programme to the workers. In Pune, he claimed that workers are more willing to take up VRS as new job availability is much easier compared with other places.

 

We are mainly cutting jobs at unskilled and semi-skilled levels as automation of our modern facilities calls for more skilled workforce, Ehrnreich said. Even though the company is undertaking job cuts, he said Philips may also hire workers to do highly skilled jobs.

The Loni works of Philips employs a total 1300 personnel whereas the Pimpri factory employs 750. The company has a total workforce of 6842 at its 11 manufacturing units.

The Pune region contributes about 30 per cent to the Rs 1484-crore turnover of Philips India. The product range at Loni includes electronic components, sound systems, remote controls for fans and lights sold under the brand name Phileasy. The Pimpri unit produces electronic products and other items. The company is also gearing up to meet the increased demand for audio and plastic parts from the new automobile ventures coming up. At present, Philips supplies audio and plastic parts to Ford, General Motors and Telco.

We are also talking to new car ventures looking at localising their components and as part of our strategy to meet their increased needs, we have set up a mould making facility at Pimpri, Ehrnreich said.

Meanwhile, the hearing instruments business group of Philips India has launched Plug and Hear instruments comprising six models in 3 categories. These products were launched in Europe last month will now be sold over-the-counter at select chemist shops and electronic dealers.

The company is also offering imported semi-programmable hearing aids that can help filter sound through remote control.