Business Standard reported that the move of Vedanta Aluminum Limited to lay off staff at its closed alumina refinery in Lanjigarh might be illegal, as the state labour department claims to not have received any official communication regarding the shutdown of the plant.
A senior official of the state labour department said that “Prima facie, VAL’s decision to lay off staff seems illegal. However, the picture will be clearer only after examining the lay-offs notice from the company.”
Mr Mukesh Kumar CEO of VAL said the company had been forced to take a decision to lay off employees at its Lanjigarh plant, and the details of the plan would soon be worked out.
“When the notice for closure of the plant is not proper, how can we accept the lay-offs proposal of the company”, asked the labour department official.
State Labour Commissioner Hemant Sharma said that “There is no formal or informal intimation received from the company in this regard till date.”
The labour department claimed the closure notice given by the company on September 6 was “not in the proper format”, as stipulated by the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947.
