Ashok Leyland Announces Voluntary Retirement Scheme For Employees

The commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland Ltd. announced that the introduction of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all employees of the company. In the past two years, this is the second time the company announced a Voluntary Retirement Scheme.

The president (HR, CSR, and Commu­nications) N V Balachandar of Ashok Leyland said the scheme would help the company create a more cost-effective and efficient organisational structure.

The VRS would be implemented over a period of nine months at the company offices or factory locations. According to reports, 5,700 employees are eligible to opt for the scheme.

Balachandar also said that with the pandemic affecting the nature of work, this would provide scope for people to pursue flexible career opportunities, and this new scheme will help employees to pursue that.

"Many employees have requested for early retirement, and this scheme provides them with a viable exit," reported The Business Standard.

In this round of VRS, it will cover employees with one to 32 years of experience with the company across all functions. As per the reports, the longer a person has been with the company, the higher the payout will be received by him. For instance, those who have worked with Ashok Leyland for a period five years will get one month salary for five months. At the same time, those with more than five years will get half a month's salary for the number of years they have been working with the company.

Last year, the company had offered two months' fixed pay for all those who completed a year of service for employees with 15 years of tenure. For those who had completed between five and 10 years, it was offering one month of fixed pay.

The company posted a loss of ₹147 crore as revenue declined 28 per cent amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the previous quarter, the commercial vehicle maker reported a loss of ₹389 crore with an 89 per cent decline in revenue.