Waiting for the last 18 months to get their salaries, over 1,400 workers of the iconic HMT factory, which is heading for a closure, have rejected the claim of Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Anant G Geete, that they were satisfied with the decision of giving them voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). The issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha session by Congress leader Kumari Selja on Monday, following which Geete interjected and said that the government acknowledged the problems of the workers. He announced that the government had agreed to give VRS to employees on 2007 pay scale. [related-post] “Right from the beginning, we have been opposing the VRS, and our struggle continues against it. VRS would only benefit a small fraction of employees who are nearing their retirement age. What about others and their families? Why has the government chosen to ignore them?” asked Mahender Singh, president, HMT Workers’ Union. The workers said that they had never agreed to the scheme. “Hum prayas karte rahenge (We will keep making efforts),” added Singh. Opposing the decision of the government, the workers wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. “We have met several ministers from the union and state government with requests to restart the unit. Be it through railway design, automobile industry or by private public partnership (PPP), the government can adopt any way to restart the unit and secure our jobs, which is our key concern,” read the letter addressed to the Prime Minister. HMT Pinjore consists of a tractor plant and a machine tool unit. Reacting to the government decision, advocate Vijay Bansal, who had been voicing the concerns of the workers for several years, said, “VRS is not the solution. The workers want employment, and the government can do that by reviving the two units. The survival of the Shivalik belt depends on it. Why can’t the government promote industrial development in this area?” Another worker, Ramsharam Kantiwaal, said, “We want employment. We want our future to be secured. The government should make efforts to revive the units, rather than rolling out VRS which will not benefit the workers.”
