Production pressure mounts at RINL while manpower shrinks
- Employees’ strength keep shrinking at Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited
- The existing staff go through stress as management mounts production pressure on them
- With minimised strength, the union leaders said it is highly impossible to achieve full production
Visakhapatnam: At a time when the employees’ strength is dwindling at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), the management is mounting pressure on the rest of the personnel to enhance the production capacity.
Following which, the employees of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited are facing tremendous pressure.
Recently, Steel Ministry Secretary Sandeep Poundrik visited the plant and interacted with a section of employees. He emphasised that the strength of the employees and contract workers should be minimised and production capacity needs to be optimised.
On March 31, 2025, as many as 1,213 Visakhapatnam Steel Plant employees were retired. Of them, 1,124 sought for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). A total of Rs 462 crore was deposited in their bank accounts post the VRS. But they are yet to receive their earned leaves and a provident fund.
The management assured them that it will release the amount of earned leaves within a week or 10 days. But it is to become a reality. In the meantime, the existing employees of the plant were yet to receive March month’s salary. This apart, the management has to pay pending partial salaries for the past two months to the employees.
For the past 30 days, almost 1,000 contract workers were terminated at the VSP. Opposing their removal, trade unions have been staging protests in support of them.
Similarly, the VSP management instructed the workers, who crossed 50 years of age, to undergo medical fitness tests at the Visakha Steel General Hospital. As some of them failed to undergo the tests, the management blocked the passes of 45 workers.
Citing various reasons, INTUC leader Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao told The Hans India that the management is keen on weakening the strength of the plant employees. “It is highly impossible to continue with the full production with the support of the existing personnel. It is immoral on the part of the management to mount pressure on the employees even without paying them monthly salaries,” he pointed out.
In the next four years, another 4,000 employees are expected to retire. “There is neither adequate raw material supply nor manpower to operate RINL in full production. Despite the management being aware of the ground situation, it pressurises the existing employees to work towards full production,” remarked, D Adi Narayana, chairman of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee.
