5 ICICI staff move court against retirement scheme
Sujata A Singh Roy
MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 17: Five ICICI employees have sought protection from the industrial court as well as the labour court from adversely changing their service conditions and terminating their employment by the management.
The cases were filed on December 28 last year after ICICI launched the second round of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). On the following day, the complainants secured an interim stay order from the courts. The five employees alleged that they were being harassed with all manner of threats including termination of service, indefinite working hours, transfer to group companies, transfer out of the city for refusing to accept the VRS.
ICICI has denied all these allegations. ``The allegations made by the complainant employees including the specific complaints mentioned are false, baseless and are denied,' ICICI said. These employees in their petition filed in the industrial court alleged that the company was ``engaged in unfair labour practices under items 3, 9 & 10 of Schedule IV of the MRTU & PULP Act, 1971.'
At the labour court, the staff alleged that ICICI was ``engaged in unfair labour practices under items 1 (a), (b), (d), (f) of Schedule IV of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971.' ``There is no truth in the complaints of the complainant employees that the company is forcing them to take VRS. The VRS was offered to all employees who were eligible under the scheme. The benefits were availed of by 223 out of total 700 employees eligible under the VRS,' the term lending institution pointed out. ICICI said that ``the complainant employees are officers and not workmen. It is for the courts to decide whether they fall into the definition of workmen.'
An ICICI spokesperson said as the company was remodelling on the lines of new generation banking with increased investment in technology, some employees did not possess the required skill. Hence, VRS was offered as an exit route.
-Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. |
