Coimbatore Gaint Mill LMW Announced VRS
The Lakshmi Mills Company Limited’s announcement asking the employees for their willingness to opt for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) created unrest and apprehension among the employees about the future of the Pappanaickenpalayam unit of the mill. According to sources, there are 280 permanent workers in this unit. The number has fallen significantly over the years from 1,300. The nearly 100 year old mill has three units at Pappanaickenpalayam in Coimbatore at Palladam near here and at Kovilpatti in Tuticorin District with facilities for manufacture of yarn and fabric. The total spindle capacity of the mill was over 1.46 lakhs, apart from 117 looms and 672 rotors.
The Coimbatore unit with a capacity of 31,968 spindles is engaged in the manufacture of polyester cotton blended yarn. The mill had been facing troubles over the last couple of years and it incurred a net loss of Rs.10.20 crore during the 2007-08 fiscal compared to Rs.6.65 crore profits the earlier year. With the top mill management not available for comment, a source on conditions of anonymity said the ‘golden handshake’ is “not new”. The company has been downsizing its workforce once in 15 to 18 months for the last several years and last year 110 people opted to retire voluntarily.
It is learnt that about 1,000 workers had been relieved so far. Source attributed the down sizing as a result of modernisation and maintained that the facilities at the Palladam and Kovilpatti plants were being modernised but not the Coimbatore plant. Speculation was also rife about the management contemplating the closure of this unit. A section of the workforce said the management had informed them about their inability to run the unit and requested them to either opt for a job in its unit at Palladam/ Kovilpatti or accept to retire voluntarily. According to sources, 35 of the 280 have resigned, while another 40 have opted to move to its other units.
