CCEA to consider VRS package for HVOC staff

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA) will consider tomorrow a voluntary retirement scheme ( VRS) for employees of the sick public sector company Hindustan Vegetable Oils Corporation ( HVOC).

"The Food Ministry's proposal for improved VRS package at 2007 notional pay scales for employees of HVOC is on the agenda of the cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow," a source said.

At present, the sick company is left with 85 employees, who are being given paid salary at 1992 pay scales. The proposal is to compensate employees with improved VRS package at 2007 pay scales, the source added.

HVOC, which was manufacturing of vanaspati, refining and packing of imported edible oil for PDS and manufacturing of breakfast cereal, is currently in the process of liquidation.

The company had its manufacturing and refining units at Delhi, Kanpur, Amritsar, Mumbai and Kolkata and packing units at Bangalore and Chennai. All the units except Breakfast Foods Unit (BFFU) located in Delhi were closed in 2001.

The liquidator has so far disposed off the moveable assets of the units at Chennai, Mumbai, Amritsar, Bangalore and Kanpur. The production activities at BFFU have been discontinued from June, 2011.

The government has earlier offered similar VRS packages to defunct HMT units, Hindustan Photofilms and Inland Water Transport Authority.