Resentment is simmering among the dwindling workforce of HMT Machine Tools, Kalamassery, over the management’s reluctance to augment manpower at the unit – the only profit-making production centre among the six units of HMT Machine Tools across the country.
The unit turned around from loss in the previous year to record a net profit of ₹35 lakh in the just-concluded financial year, accounting for nearly a third of the total income from product sales recorded by all the units. However, if the unit had some 3,500 employees on its rolls in the 1990s, the number has nosedived to just about 235 at present, nearly half of them (108 as on November last year) officers.
Despite clamour from the unions for augmentation of workforce so as to fill in the vacuum in experience, skill sets and knowledge levels essential to remain competitive in the hi-tech environment as also for better productivity, the management is running the show empanelling people, including retired hands, on contract. As per last year-end figures, there were 36 project associates, diploma and graduate engineers on two-year contract; 230 contract employees (workers); 50 casual labourers recruited post-retirement; and 31 retired employees contracted on a special scheme.
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“The number of employees on contract far outnumbers those on the rolls, which is not a healthy sign given the fact that knowledge-base and experience matter in this job,” rues an employee.
To top it up, those on the rolls work on the 1997-wage scheme implemented just a couple of years ago. While there’s a relatively strong order book, employees work in a single 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift, while a paltry ₹19 is handed down for an hour of extra work, limited to a maximum of four hours, between January and March when production peaks.
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“The biggest worry is that of the 235-odd permanent employees now, some 120 will retire by 2020. So, unless there’s recruitment now, there would hardly be enough skilled hands around to do the job around that time. A total of 33 people are due for retirement this year itself. Lack of a skilled and youthful workforce is what’s going to be the company’s bane,” laments another employee.
While the unit ran without a production head for the past six months, P.S. Suresh, who was in-charge of sales, took over production on Thursday. But there’s no finance chief for nearly two years now.
When contacted by The Hindu , C.M. Bidar, general manager of the Kalamassery unit, said that for the time being since the holding company was not augmenting human resource, the unit was making do with project associates, graduate apprentices, IT apprentices and contracted retirees. “It’s not a permanent solution, but the government has not allotted additional manpower given that the company, [except the Kalamassery unit] is at a loss. But the plan is to engage more project associates for a two-year term and give those doing well priority in the recruitment drive slated to happen around that time,” he said.
“Nearly 30-40 employees retire annually, which is a serious situation,” he added.