Leading gold financing firm Muthoot Finance on Wednesday announced the closure of 15 of its branches in various parts of Kerala through a newspaper advertisement.
This comes after the firm on Tuesday announced that over 300 strike-hit branches in the state might be closed in a phased manner
The company management also kept off a meeting convened by Labour Minister T P Ramakrishnan on Wednesday citing inconvenience. A fresh round of meeting is scheduled on September 9 to discuss the demands of employees for specific service norms and pay scales.
The Kerala-based company, with over 5,000 branches spread across the country and even abroad, alleges that the ongoing strike by employees under the banner of CITU-backed Non-Banking and Private Finance Employees Association since August 20 was affecting the functioning of over 300 of its 650-odd branches in Kerala for the last couple of weeks.
The management was of the opinion that these branches should be shut in a phased manner, said Muthoot Finance managing director George Alexander.
But there were allegations that the company, with a profit of about Rs 2,000 crore, was trying for downsizing in Kerala as it was now having more business in other states, especially those in the North.
A section of employees points out that over 200 branches in Kerala were shut over the last few years.
The managing director had said that the company's business from Kerala was only 4% of the company's total business and added that the annual average business of a branch outside Kerala was around Rs 9 crore, while in Kerala it was only around Rs 2.5 crore.
The indefinite strike by the firm's employees grabbed much attention on Tuesday after the company's managing director himself joined a section of non-striking employees and squatted in front of the firm's head office in Kochi and protested against the agitating workers for not allowing the firm to function. The issue even triggered allegations of labour militancy affecting the industry.
Nisha K Jayan, a leader of the striking employees, said that employees with many years of experience were drawing salaries of only around Rs 12,000, while a few in the top management were drawing attractive salaries. The employees have been giving representations to be company since 2016 to address the basic issues. But the company initiated vindictive steps like transferring union leaders to other states and remote areas.
CITU Kerala general secretary Elamaram Kareem said that the management was trying to pressurise employees by announcing that branches would be shut.
Meanwhile, Kerala's former chief secretary C P Nair said that no company would be able to shut shops or retrench employee without going through the due process of law and giving adequate reasons.