Fulfil our demands, ex-staff of Pond’s tell management

CHENNAI: Members of All Former Employees of Pond’s welfare association have urged the Pond’s India to fulfil their long-pending demands on the non-implementation of benefits for the employees.

The association will be holding a protest at Rajaratnam Stadium on September 2. Meanwhile, during the press meet held here on Tuesday, several senior members of the association pointed out that Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), which took over Pond’s India, had closed 11 factories in India.

They added that 3 trusts – Pond’s Employees Welfare Trust formed in 1980, Pond’s Management Staff Welfare Trust (1981) and Pond’s Supervisory Staff Welfare Trust (1984) were formed to help employees and their families in education, training, marriage, medical facilities, housing, etc. But they claim that these trusts were closed abruptly to deny them of any benefits. “The 3 trusts amounted to over Rs 1,765 crore in 2012, which currently has multiplied to over Rs 4,500 crore,” noted KJ Mohan Kumar, the association president.

Some of their demands are — furnish audited balance sheet of the trusts, facilitate their merger, evolve a scheme of disbursement of the trust and collection to beneficiaries and their departments, direct law-enforcement to take action against trustees for violation.