Philips Withdraws Offers To Workers'Union

A press release issued by the management clarifying its stand came after the new managing director K Ehrnreich was denied entry to the premises of the company's Taratola factory for the second consecutive day,.

The managing director, however, received a cordial welcome at the Philips registered office, the warehouse and the Philips Telecommunication Industries.

The Philips management in a release said: The management has been constrained to withdraw all offers made to the union during the negotiations and the decision has been communicated to the union.

The Peico Workers' Union and the Philips Workers Union had declared a two-day strike in three key Philips India units in West Bengal on September 5 and 6.

 

The workers have cited the delay in the implementation of a charter of demands by the management as the main reason for the strike call.

Three factories in Calcutta, consumer electronics factory, plastics and metalware factory and the luminaire business unit, continued to be on strike for the second consecutive day.

The three units together account for about 80 per cent of Philips' production in India.

Philips India sources said, the increase in salary offered by the Dutch electronics giant to its workers in Calcutta, at Rs 1,150, was better than any other offer made by corporate managements to its workers.

This offer had also been made to the workers in Mumbai, where a settlement has been arrived at. The workers, it is believed, have been asking instead for an increase of around Rs 1,500.

The slowdown is expected to affect the output of Philips in the second quarter.

The consumer electronics division of the company has shown a sharp growth at the end of the first six months of this year over the corresponding period of the previous year.

The sales witnessed a 26 per cent increase, which was aided by the doubling of sales in first quarter this fiscal compared with the previous year.

But a go-slow of the sort that is affecting the company now can seriously cramp its growth, said a senior executive.