The HMT Employees’ Union, CITU, has demanded that the company management fulfil its promise of recruiting more hands to meet the growing needs of the company at its Kalamassery unit.
The public sector company at one time employed around 3,500 workers in three shifts. There are now only 133 permanent employees and 250 workers on contract at the unit working in one shift. The number of employees will soon become less than hundred if no recruitments are made, said the employees’ union in its representation to the company management.
The HMT unit at Kalamassery was one of the largest employers of engineers, diploma holders and technically qualified persons. At one time, there were 190 engineers, 380 diploma holders and 1,100 qualified technical personnel in the unit. However, the unit has fallen on bad days. It had great capacity to absorb technically qualified persons in large numbers as a heavy industrial unit.
The voluntary retirement programmes under the ‘Golden Handshake’ scheme and the natural process of retirements of employees have resulted in the number of employees coming down drastically at the unit.
No fresh recruitments are made in place of those who retire.
The Kalamassery unit has operated with profit and won the productivity award in 2019-20, said P. Krishnadas, secretary of the union in a statement issued here on Monday.
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