Fearing possible closure, the Nokia India Thozhilalar Sangam (workers’ union) late on Saturday sent a letter to Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, seeking her immediate intervention in protecting the future of 6,600 permanent employees at the company’s Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai.
In the letter, R Soundararajan, president of the workers’ union, requested the CM to ask Nokia India to withdraw the voluntary retirement scheme, which was announced on April 16 for a month to both permanent as well temporary employees of the plant.
He also urged the CM to direct Nokia India to bring back those orders shifted to other countries such as Vitenam, China and Thailand to ensure a continuous job flow.
In his letter, Soundararajan urged Jayalalithaa to see that the Finland-based Nokia Corporation took over the Chennai plant than being run currently by Nokia India, as the latter had failed in its promises to ensure job security as well as transfer of the Chennai plant to Microsoft, as was originally promised. In case if that does not take place, the CM should ensure that the Chennai plant be transferred to Microsoft as was said earlier, irrespective of the outcome of the ongoing tax disputes in India, the letter added.
Being an SEZ, Nokia India got all the incentives and packages when it decided to set up a plant near Chennai in 2005 and it also promised jobs to all those employed at that point of time in its agreement with the Tamil Nadu government. So the CM should force Nokia to comply with all its original promises and ensure job security, Soundararajan wrote in the letter.