Siemens offer: VRS or exit

AUGUST 24: Major industries in the Thane-Belapur industrial belt are resorting to the `golden handshake’, as the Voluntary Retirement scheme (VRS) is euphemistically known, to allegedly offset losses caused by recession.

The latest to jump on to the VRS bandwagon is the multinational Siemens, which has even threatened its employees with retrenchment if they don’t opt out next Sunday, when the VRS deadline expires. The company, which has already lost 35 per cent of its market share to its rivals, hopes that VRS will be the magic mantra to achieve a turnaround. The communique also said the interest accrued from VRS money could equal the pay packet of the employees, and it was offering employees counselling on investing their VRS amounts. Ashok Pohekar, general secretary of Shramik Sena said major companies like Proctor and Gamble, NOCIL and Corn Products and Co had all introduced VRS, with several other companies planning to go for it in the near future.