Nearly 2,000 Nokia Workers In Chennai Accept VRS

Nearly 2,000 employees of Nokia India's Chennai facility have accepted the company’s voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), even as many of them are seeking help from the government in a bid to save their jobs.

Senior members of the factory's labour union told Economic Times that the ‘apathy’ of the authorities forced many employees to choose the voluntary retirement scheme. However, the precise number of these employees could not be immediately ascertained.

"Since nobody has offered us any help, what assurance can we give to our employees and on what basis can we ask them not to accept the VRS?" asked a senior union member, requesting anonymity. "We are still trying to get some help, some support, but nobody seems to care," he added.

Earlier, the company’s Chennai plant marked India’s significance as a key market and manufacturing hub for Nokia, which was once the world's largest handset-maker before being overtaken by stalwarts like Samsung and Apple.

Due to tax disputes, the Chennai facility was left out of a global Microsoft takeover of Nokia's devices and services units. The unit has about 7,000 workers and the majority of them are women. Nokia India announced the voluntary retirement scheme last month in order to curtail its operations. "All we can share right now is that the VRS package is being offered till May 14," a Nokia spokesperson said in a statement.

Nokia India has been urging its employees to take up the VRS offer, hinting that they may not be entitled to any other compensation once the offer is closed, senior members of the union said. According to them, the company has informed that it has orders for just 1.5 million handsets, which will require only about 1,300 employees.

"The management has conveyed to the employees that there is no future for this facility anymore," another source added.
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