With the winding up petitions against the company being disposed of by the Madras high court on April 3, the Best & Crompton board was left with three nominees of the Indonesian conglomerate Polysindo, the court-appointed directors being discharged from their duties.

It is learnt that as soon as M Arunachalam (who is heading the Asian operations of the group) got the news, he faxed a message to Venkitaramanan last evening, asking him if he would like to continue as chairman. The latter consented, according to sources in Polysindo, and only a formal board approval remains.

Despite Best & Crompton coming into its own now afternearly 18 months of suspense, the Polysindo group still has some unfinished tasks on its agenda. Chief among them is the labour problem, which has still not been amicably settled. On the labour front, the management has not been able to relieve 100 workers of the targeted 270. These workers could not be persuaded to take up the VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) package because they did not find it attractive enough.

The court had earlier turned down a management petition praying for permission to retrench the targeted numbers. Leaders of the union had suggested higher compensation and better coordinated efforts in reducing numbers, but this was not acceptable to the management.

Now a committee spearheaded by N Shanmugam, retired joint commissioner of labour, has been appointed by Polysindo to look into the issue. Union representatives are also planning to meet Arunachalam. Best & Crompton currently has 800 workers working with it.