The problem surfaced at Sajha in November 2006, when a group of employees, who accepted VRS, all of a sudden, came back and demanded that they be provided salary for the 14-month period when the company remained closed. The employees were working for the company in that period. Although the senior Sajha management officials say that the demand itself is not totally baseless, they question why the employees did not raise the issue while accepting the VRS.
�How can employees, who have left the company voluntarily, again come back to the company and ask for compensation, Mukunda Satyal, executive director of Sajha Yatayat told the Post.
Nonetheless, the management is still reviewing the demand and will come up with an amicable solution soon, Satyal said. We, thus, request the agitated workers to settle the matter at some other place and allow the company to resume its normal business,� he added. For the last five months, the workers, who have been staging a sit-in at the main entrance of the company, have been demanding salary of the period between January 2002 and April 2003, when Sajha was closed.
The government had closed Sajha on January 24, 2002, citing its deteriorating financial health. However, a Supreme Court verdict declared the decision unlawful on the ground that it was taken without the consent of the board of directors. Sajha had again come into operation on April 15, 2003.
But soon after the company reopened, the management led by Satyal launched VRS and downsized workforce to 100 from 728.
Bishnu Basnet, president of the staff union, which is leading the agitation, however, claimed that the VRS scheme was launched during the royal regime by the management, which was 'illegally' appointed and they will not accept decisions taken by it.
