Balco, MFL managements indicted

NEW DELHI: A high-powered committee of officials that went into the fallout of disinvestment of Balco and Modern Food has virtually indicted the managements of the privatised entities for being "anti-labour�.

Besides "crass unfair practices" in the case of Balco and Modern Food, which were sold to Sterlite and Hindustan Lever under aggressive privatisation policy of the previous NDA government, the four-member committee has also said the Labour Ministry was "never taken into confidence" by the then Disinvestment Ministry on various labour-related issues, sources said.

The report, which would soon be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is also understood to have noticed "asset stripping" in violation of clauses put by the then Disinvestment Ministry.

"After the disinvestment of these entities, there was mass transfer of employees and compulsory retirement in the first year itself," the sources told PTI, adding that the Labour Ministry was "never" consulted by the Disinvestment Ministry.

According to disinvestment clause, employees could not be offered voluntary retirement for one year after disinvestment, they said.

In Balco, they said, many departments have either been closed down or merged, bringing down permanent posts and forcing workers to resign, while in the case of Modern Foods, sources said, outsourcing coupled with selling of prime properties were "rampant" mainly in Mumbai.

Asked about the reports of violation of labour rights, sources in the Left parties said they would "not be surprised" since the disinvestment policies of the NDA regime had always been "fishy and consummately opaque".

"We do not want to jump to conclusions... will wait for the report and only after (that we will) make up (our) mind," sources in the Left parties said.

The Left parties as well as their trade union wings had been demanding a comprehensive "enquiry" into the entire gamut of the NDA government''s disinvestment.

Trade unions like CPI (M)-affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions and CPI-backed All India Trade Union Congress have already written letters to the UPA government with regard to Balco following reports that the Centre would sell off its residual stake in the aluminium company.

In the case of Modern Foods, almost three-fourth of the units was closed down and the prime properties in Mumbai were being sold off, the committee sources said.

In view of "rampant" selling of properties, the sources said there should have been a pre-condition that the new management could sell only with the permission of the Centre.