Sources among workers in the plant claimed that the management was seriously considering selling this plant. "Production of colour televisions in this plant is at its lowest ebb, and within a couple of days it will stop totally. And with the management already making a formal declaration of shifting the production base of colour televisions to Pune, it is now a matter of time as to when this plant will be sold off because there is no point in continuing with the expenses," the sources said.

The Philips management neither confirmed nor denied any move to sell the factory. Patricia Virmani, head of corporate communications in Philips' office in Mumbai, told The Financial Express that the management "is working on various sorts of options." Another unofficial sourcesaid the company could use the Salt Lake factory for developing software, but this had not been finalised yet.

Industry observers said sale would be the best option. "After it has shifted its colour television production to Pune, there is not much for the management to do with this factory, apart from selling it off because it cannot retain the workforce or the unit and maintain all its expenses without earning a single paise. The only sensible thing is to sell it off," the observers felt.

Philips has already reduced the workforce of this unit by about 300 through its voluntary retirement scheme. One worker said: "We used to have a workforce of around 850 but out of them more than 300 have opted for the VRS. This leaves us with a workforce of something more than 500."

Sources in the Peico Worker's Union, the Citu-affiliated employees federation in the company, said that the management made a complete mess after it increased the capacity of the plant in 1996.

"The marketing management team, in 1994,had forecast sales of 7,50,000 colour television sets and accordingly the installed capacity of the Salt Lake factory was increased from 2,00,000 during 1995 to 8,75,000 in 1996, with an investment of Rs 40 crore. However the actual production, as per the annual report came down to 1,59,000 in 1996 from 1,80,000 in 1995," sources said.

Mysterious meet

A mysterious tripartite meeting was held on Thursday between the Philips management, its workers and the West Bengal government's labour department. While the company management maintained that one such meeting was held, senior officials in the state government, including the labour minister's office, said they were not aware of it.

A couple of days back sources in the Salt Lake factory said that the meeting was scheduled at 12 noon on April 9 but they did not know who was going to represent the state government.

Corporate communications head Patricia Virmani confirmed on Thursday that the meeting did take place but did not name the governmentrepresentative. She said that the management and the workers met the "labour department" and the talks were on "regular corporate affairs." However, state labour minister Shanti Ranjan Ghatak, labour secretary V Subramanium, labour commissioner S Das and additional commissioner R K Saha,said they were not aware of the meeting.