Foxconn India arm to offer severance package at Sriperumbudur factory

FIH, Foxconn's India arm, is considering to implement a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) or a severance package to workers at its Sriperumbudur factory, Business Standard reported today.

After the suspension of operations, the company had asked workers to report for work starting today. However, workers showed up and on being refused entry, protested outside the factory premises.

The company, in a notice displayed at the boundary of the facility, said that it was not able to offer regular work to employees due to a drop in business.

According to Muthukumar, president of the CITU-backed employees union, recognised by the management, the workers were not ready to go on leave and they wanted to continue to work in the factory.

He said the company also was ready to discuss a settlement, to which the union did not agree.

He alleged that the management had paid no heed to the labour department's dictum that workers not be stopped from coming to work.

The management had held talks with the three unions five times at the facility and a tri-partite meeting in the office of the assistant labour commissioner, Sriperumbudur, was also held on 12 and 18 December while the next would be held on 26 December 2014.

Meanwhile, employee unions at the company prepared to suspend operations, and launch a protest if the company stopped production from today, PTI reported yesterday.

The Foxconn India Employees Union said the handset maker had decided to suspend its operations from today after the company decided to close down the Chennai facility from 24 December in the wake of the closure of the Nokia plant, which was a major customer of Foxconn.

"We have been told that plant will suspend operations from December 22 instead of December 24. We will not give up. We will go to the plant everyday even if they ask us to go home. If they ask us to leave, we will not hesitate to go for protest," PTI quoted Foxconn India Employees Union President E Muthu Kumar as saying.

According to the union, though the majority of the products manufactured were supplied to Nokia, the plant had also been servicing companies like Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony.
According to Kumar, management could not suspend operations just because of suspension of production by Nokia.

After the company announced the decision, which would impact 1,700 workers, two rounds of tri-partite talks involving the state labour department, company management and the trade unions had been held so far but they proved "inconclusive".