Chandigarh, May 10: Thapar group flagship Crompton Greaves plans to wind up its private switching unit at Mohali and shift operations to its public switching division at Bangalore, it is learnt.The board of directors passed a resolution at its meeting on March 31, 1998, stating that the Mohali unit was running into losses and hence the decision to shift to Bangalore. The company's audited balance sheet for 1997-98, however, shows a profit of Rs 1.97 crore.
The board resolution stated: "The board was informed that the company manufactured telephone exchanges at two locations -- Mohali and Bangalore. The Mohali unit had been making heavy losses, and its operations had become commercially unviable.
"Given the highly competitive conditions, emerging future market trends and the need to sustain performance of the private switching division, it was proposed to re-organise the business and shift the operations of the division from Mohali to Bangalore. It was felt that this re-organisation would have afavourable impact on containment of losses and also contribute to the improvement of profitability of these operations".
It went on to add that as sales were generally low during April and June, it was proposed that the operations of Mohali unit be shifted to Bangalore from April 1998.
Company official Anil K Joshi said that on April 4, senior functionaries informed that about 150 personnel would have to go. The next day, the employees staged a protest demonstration. They stepped up their agitation and approached the labour commissioner, who in turn deputed his staff to conduct an inquiry.
Meanwhile, AN Rao of the Chennai private switching division sent a letter to Tripta Sood and HS Bajwa, chief executives of the Mohali unit, to work out two formats - one which dealt with resignation and the other with termination.
The company prepared a list of 99 employees who had "tendered their resignation", and estimated the amount required for ex-gratia and salary dues at Rs 2.46 crore.
The employees demandedthat the company take permission from the state government as per Section 25(0) of Industrial Disputes Act before winding up or shifting the operations.
They have demanded the intervention of the state government, which had allotted land at an subsidised Rs 6.20 lakh, besides concessions in sales tax and octroi.
Repeated attempts to contact company officials proved futile. It may be recalled that the company had taken over Northern Digital Exchange in 1996.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
