Sterlite asks staff to report at office quarters to discuss future action

The company, which has continued to pay its employees during the shutdown period, has asked its employees to join back duty to help meet local administration’s deadline to evacuate sulphuric acid and other materials from the plant, its chief executive officer P Ramnath said.

The Tamil Nadu government in May ordered permanent closure of a copper smelter of the firm after 13 people protesting to demand its shutdown on environmental concerns were killed in a police firing incident.

Following the shutdown, most of the 707 permanent employees were relocated to other company units like the one at Silvassa in Tamil Nadu.

Company sources in Chennai said employees were invited to discuss the “next course of action” in the wake of the closure of the unit.

he entire plant, India's second-biggest with an annual production of more than 400,000 tonnes, was shut down abruptly without following any shutdown procedure and we were disallowed access, Ramnath said.

After the shutdown, there was a minor leak of sulphuric acid which the local administration did not take note of until it became slightly bigger, he alleged.

After inspection, the local administrations told the company that they have to evacuate all material from the plant, he said.

They have given us unrealistic timelines for evacuating sulphuric acid and various other metals that are there (at the plant site), he said.

But since most of over 4,000 permanent and contractual employees had either been relocated to other plants or moved out of town, they have been recalled to help meet those timelines, he said.

Meanwhile, Thoothukudi Collector Sandeep Nandurai said about 40 per cent of hazardous chemicals such as sulphuric acid have so far been removed safely from the unit. Efforts were on in full swing to completely remove the entire quantity within the stipulated 30-day period.

Also as part of the company’s employee engagement measures, sources said several workers held discussions with the company representatives at the plant on Monday about the current situation as well as about job opportunities.