Indian Steel Floats VRS

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Jamshedpur, April 30: Indian Steel & Wire Products (ISWP), which was acquired earlier this year by Tata Iron & Steel Company (Tisco) through the Board for Industrial & Financial reconstruction (BIFR) route, has floated a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its employees.

According to the ISWP chief executive officer (CEO), NK Punwani, the VRS floated by the company is in accordance with the BIFR package agreed to between the union and the management on the issue of surplus manpower.

The company, which has around 750 personnel excluding the workforce of its Jemco division, started operating its wire drawing mill within a few days of Tisco’s takeover in January this year. The second unit, the wire rod mill, got into production earlier this month.

“We are still in the process of stabilising the operations at the wire rod mill,” Mr Punwani told FE on Friday.

Asked what excess manpower the company had, the ISWP CEO said, “We are currently in the process of doing various studies and analysis of the surplus staff we have. We also have a planning to re-train some of the eligible persons considering the manpower we may be needing in the near future or even for future expansion.”

ISWP, which remained closed for around five years, held an AGM for the year 2002-03 a couple of days ago. The company posted an accumulated loss of around Rs 71 crore for the year to March 31, 2003.

“The audit for 2003-04 is yet to be completed,” Mr Punwani said, adding that the company has so far invested around Rs 25 crore in updating the machineries, including the imported ones for its wire rod mill to achieve optimum production at both the units.

The investment too is part of the Rs 39-crore package agreed to with the BIFR and others for the company’s rehabilitation.

The company has, as its VRS package, given the option of selecting either a one-time payment, or a monthly pension scheme till the age of retirement. Under the one-time payment scheme, employees between 55 to 59 years of age opting for VRS would get a payment of Rs 1 lakh, while those under 55 would be getting Rs 1.10 lakh.

Similarly, under the monthly pension scheme, employees would, depending upon their age group, would receive a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,500, respectively till the age of superannuation. Several other facilities like medical benefit, etc, also form the part of the company’s VRS scheme.