Mumbai, June 27: The Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) board is considering a proposal to launch a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for "select" employees. Such employees include those who are either underperforming and have not managed any promotions, or have consistently taken leave, or have failed on any other proficiency-related criteria.Sources say BHEL plans to reduce its staff strength by 5,000. If approved by the board, the VRS will be launched in July, through which all retiring employees will receive two months' salary for every completed year of service. The retiring employees will be entitled to all other retirement and medical benefits as in a normal retirement.
It will, however, not be a blanket scheme applicable to all employees. Only specific employees in specific divisions where BHEL plans to go slow on production in the current financial year may be picked for the VRS, the sources say.
Last year, when the management introduced the VRS as a blanket scheme, about 8,000 employees, many of whom were competent, rushed for it forcing the management to close the scheme midway. The first VRS was launched in June last year, when all the retiring employuees were offered one-and-a-half months of salary for every year of completed service, with all retirement benefits remaining in tact.
BHEL has an employee strength of 55,500, including officers and management staff. It is one of the largest engineering companies with a diverse product range and large-scale operations. BHEL has 15 manufacturing locations across the country, catering to the needs of the power sector, as well as transportation, telcommunications, metallurgical, and process industries.
It was a fully government-owned company until 1992, when a partial disinvesment was undertaken in favour of financial institutions (FIs) and mutual funds. The cabinet committee on disinvestment headed by Arun Jaitley is yet to take a decision on its disivestment.
Earlier, the GV Ramakrishna commission on disinvestment had recommended the induction of FIs as strategic partners by offloading 20 per cent of BHEL's equity. The commission had recommended that domestic FIs be offered an equity stake of 10 per cent, and foreign private equity funds/FIs, including multilateral institutions (foreign funds), a further 10 per cent in the company, with an appropriate role in management to both the Indian and foreign parties.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.