Nokia India Plant Shuts Down: 7.5 lakh Severance to Employees
Chennai: Nokia India’s phone manufacturing unit in Sriperumbudur announced its official foreclosure today, and was preceded by the announcement that Nokia had unilaterally agreed on a 7.5 lakh severance package for over 900 employees working at the plant.
A joint meeting held between Nokia India, the workers’ union, the company management and the labor commission reached an amicable financial settlement for all of its 912 employees and 28 clerical staff. The employees will be offered a 7.5 lakh severance package and a lump sum amount of 1 lakh.
Nokia India has also agreed to pay the salaries for the months of November and December to facilitate the transition of the employees into prospective new jobs.
The foreclosure of the plant comes after Microsoft, who has recently taken over Nokia, decided to terminate the contract of the plant. Microsoft announced that the plant will be shut down with effect from November 1.
At its peak, the manufacturing plant had 40,000 employees on its payroll; but ever since Nokia was bought by Microsoft the no. of employees had been steadily decreasing and it came down only about 900 employees before the plant was shut altogether.
We recently told you about how Microsoft had decided to drop the Nokia name from its Lumia range of phones, and it seems that the takeover did not stop there.
It will be interesting to see if the other Nokia plants in India would also be affected by the takeover, and if Microsoft has plans to outsource the production from India altogether.
But, all things considered, it was a good gesture of loyalty shown by Nokia to offer a stability package to its employees to help them sustain on their feet till they find new jobs.
Nokia had been one of the premier mobile companies in the country, and was a pioneer in providing mobile communication, especially in India. In all probability it was the first phone that most of us Indians owned, and the takeover leaves a sense of nostalgia in its trail.
