Hindustan Motors offers VRS to employees

The C K Birla owned Hindustan Motors Limited, which was put under suspension of work since May 24 this year, today offered voluntary retirement scheme to all its employees.

The VRS notice was pasted on the gates of the company’s Uttarpara unit by the management, which said all workers would be paid their statutory dues plus and additional amount of Rs 100,000 each.

The VRS scheme would be applicable from Sunday (November 9) till November 20, both days inclusive, the company said in a statement.

The Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors employed about 2,300 odd workers.

HM, which shot to limelight by manufacturing the iconic Ambassador car at its Uttarpara unit, faced troubled fortunes with declining sales of the vehicle over the years owing to onset of competition from Japanese and Korean auto makers.

Coupled with this, the unit was also facing severe cash crunch for which it was not being able to meet the working capital, leading to a situation where the company had to stop the production of Ambassador cars and effect a suspension of work notice at the Uttarpara unit.

A series of tripartite meetings which took place immediately after the suspension of work, yielded no result.

HM said in its statement that today’s decision was in line with the restructuring of the Uttarpara unit, which was announced earlier.

Image: The closed factory of Hindustan Motors' Uttarapara plant. Photograph: Dipak Chakraborty/Rediff.com