300 Vizag Steel Plant employees opt for third phase VRS

Visakhapatnam: Around 350 employees of Vizag Steel Plant are reportedly opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in the third phase as against the targeted 600. To downsize the number of employees, the management of VSP had issued a notification for VRS in the last year. The third phase VRS was announced in the last month and applications have been accepting from Jan 1 and the final date of submission of application is Jan 20.In the first two phases, a total of 1633 employees were removed through VRS. The number of permanent employees has come to around 90,00 including 2,700 executives and 6300 non-executives. The number would be reduced through the third phase of VRS. How ever, 56 employees would retire in this month and another 42 would retire in the next month. More than5000 out of around 14000 contract employees have been removed to date.
Trade union allege that the management delay tactics of salaries have been forcing the workers to opt VRS. Apart from that lack of promotions and uncertainity about the plant's future have led many, including young staff to resign or take VRS, they alleged.