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CHENNAI, May 17

THE Tamil Nadu Government has come out with a voluntary retirement scheme for employees of State public sector undertakings. It has also revised the guidelines for VRS in line with the scheme announced for the employees of Central public sector undertakings.

The maximum amount that an employee opting for VRS will get ranges from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4.20 lakh depending on the category in which the public sector undertaking concerned falls and the level of the employee.

The State public sector undertakings (PSUs) will be broadly classified into three. These are - PSUs that are financially sound and can sustain a voluntary retirement scheme from their own surplus resources; those that are not financially sound but proposed to be kept as a going concern. A State PSU is defined as "financially not sound" if its net worth has been eroded by 50 per cent or it has incurred loss for the last three consecutive years; and, PSUs that are not financially sound and that are proposed to be closed down.

In the case of PSUs that are financially sound and can sustain a VRS from their own surplus resources, the present ex gratia amount will be revised from one-and-half months emoluments (pay plus DA) to two months emoluments for every completed year of service or salary for the number of months service left or the Rs 2 lakh - Rs 4.20 lakh range, whichever is less.

For this category of PSUs, the Government order (GO) has stipulated the maximum amount that an employee opting for VRS will get is Rs 4.20 lakh in the case of top level (employees in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 10,000 and above), Rs 2.75 lakh in the middle level (employees in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 6,500 and above but below Rs 10,000), and Rs 2 lakh at the lower level (employees in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 2,550 and above but below Rs 6,500).

According to the GO, the ex gratia amount will be given by the State PSUs from their own sources or from loans raised from the market. No assistance will be given from the State Renewal Fund to financially sound PSUs.

In the case of the second category of PSUs - those that are not financially sound but proposed to be kept as a going concern - the compensation will consist of 30 days salary (pay plus DA) for every completed year of service and 10 days for the balance of service left until superannuation or the amount in the Rs 1.75 lakh - Rs 3.50 lakh range, whichever is less.

For this category of PSUs, the order specifies a ceiling in ex gratia of Rs 3.50 lakh for a top level employee (those in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 10,000 and above), a limit of Rs 2.50 lakh for middle level employees (in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 6,500 and above but below Rs 10,000), and a ceiling of Rs 1.75 lakh for the lower level employees (those in the scale of pay, the minimum of which is Rs 2,550 and above but below Rs 6,500). The ex gratia amount will be given by the PSUs from their own sources or from loans from the market.

In the case of State PSUs that are not financially sound and are proposed to be closed down, the compensation will consist of 30 days salary (pay plus DA) for every completed year of service and 10 days for the balance of service left until superannuation or Rs 2.50 lakh, whichever is less in respect of all levels of employees. . At least 90 per cent of the employees should opt for the VRS within one month of the offer or else employees would be eligible only for retrenchment compensation. Those employees who do not opt for it would get only retrenchment compensation.

According to the GO, a guaranteed VRS amount of Rs 1.50 lakh shall be given to the employees of the PSUs falling under all the categories if the VRS amount calculated is less than Rs 1.50 lakh.

For those covered under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the upper limit shall be revised as the case may be or the actual retrenchment compensation, whichever is higher.

In the case of PSUs that are not financially sound and are proposed to be closed down, the ex gratia amount will have to be met from the State Renewal Fund, which will be given to the State PSUs on loan as per the guidelines of the fund.

The GO says that the VRS package shall be made available to those PSUs having no pension scheme other than EPF Pension Scheme. The GO has also asked the PSUs to place this order before their boards of directors in the next meeting.

It may be recalled that the Government had said in the Budget that it would come out with an attractive VRS scheme for employees of PSUs and that external agencies would be approached for funding.

The Government had also announced its intention to disinvest its stake in profit-making PSUs and privatise loss-making ones. There were 58 PSUs in the State and as of March 31, 2001, only 26 made a profit.

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