After successfully getting buyers for four out of 11 UP Sugar Corporation mills in various districts of the state, the Uttar Pradesh government moved to the next stage of disinvestment in the sugar sector.
In order to clear off the mills? debts and pass them to the new buyer sans any liabilities, the UP State Sugar Corporation has announced the First Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The offer would be open to all the 2,000-odd employees of the four sugar mills that have found clean buyers. They are Siswabazar, Jarwal Road, Chandpur and Amroha. While the Indian Potash (IPL) is the successful bidder for the first two mills, Chandpur has gone to PBS and Amroha to Wave Industries.
According to highly placed officials in the government, the mill managements of these four mills have issued notices that all employees who want to opt for First VRS scheme as mentioned in the request for qualification document, can apply for it by July 10.
Since both the wage board employees and the centralised service staff of the four units shall remain to be employees of the units even after the transfer of all the assets of the unit of UPSSCL to the purchasers, they will have the option of opting for voluntary retirement, wherein they will be paid dues as per UP government’s norms.
After the closure of the First VRS, the selected purchasers would be informed about the number of employees who have opted for the scheme and they will be consulted for finalising the employees to whom they are willing to offer the First VRS. In the case of the centralised service staff posted at the units who opt for the First VRS and do not agree to transfer their services to the units under the new management of the purchaser, the purchaser is obligated to pay them the VRS. The computing work on the First VRS amounts will be done within 15 days of the selection of the intimation date and the purchaser will make make the payment of the VRS amount, which will in turn be disbursed to the employees within 21 days of the First VRS payment date.
Thereafter, the remaining employees of the units would continue their services at the existing service conditions and no retrenchment of employees can be undertaken by the purchaser for at least one complete crushing season or one year from the date of signing the MoU with the Sugar Corporation, after which period the purchasers will again be bound to offer the Second VRS to the employees and they would have to necessarily provide VRS benefits to all the employees who opt for the Second VRS scheme.
?This one year will give both the employees and the purchasers the time to reevaluate their options of whether they would like to stay on together or look for an option to exit. Both will get to understand what working together would entail and whether the prospect is beneficial to both. For, while on the one hand employees fear losing their jobs and being rendered jobless, the employers too would stand to lose skilled employees. In fact, the new managements would look forward to retaining the highly skilled and semi skilled employees. It is only the unskilled labour which stands the chance of having their VRS applications accepted by the management whenever the opt for it,? said the official.