Awarded for employing PwDs, cola major wants to retrench them

CHENNAI: Conferred with the best employee award by the State government in 2014 for giving jobs to people with disabilities, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (P) Ltd in Tiruvallur district is now planning to retrench most of them.

At least 31 employees with hearing-speech impairment, working with the company since 2002, have complained to the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) that they are being laid off, stating “end of contract”.

These employees — selected through VRC (Vocational Rehabilitation Centre) and working as contract employees in the company for years — were not absorbed in permanent roles while other able-bodied workers were made permanent.

“They were working in the bottling department initially, and when the process was replaced with machines, they were shifted to other sections. When the company tried to terminate them, the employees protested and the company agreed to conduct skill training for them. However, it has not been done so far,” said a law officer with the Directorate for the Welfare of Differently-abled.

He added that as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act empowers, the Court of the State Commissionerate for Persons with Disabilities had inquired into the complaints of differently-abled employees deprived of their rights.

With regard to the Equal Opportunity Policy, the Joint Director of Industrial Safety and Health, Tiruvallur stated that the factory of the company in the district has not published any Equal Opportunity Policy as prescribed under Section 21 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 until their inspection on July 29, 2022.

The disability rights group Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers also complained to the Directorate regarding the issue.

“It was the Coca-Cola representatives who interviewed these people but now they are saying the recruitment was done by contractors. It was only later they changed it to ‘contract’, though there are no direct notices from the company.

“There was a contractor involved, and they are saying since the contract with him has ended, we cannot be on the rolls anymore. We are ready to take any skill development training to continue our job here because we do not have any other option and are completely dependent on this employment,” says Jansi Rani, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC).

Terming it as “discriminatory”, she pointed out that only people with hearing-speech impairments are being removed while others continue to be on duty.

“The company and the contractor are both discriminating against people with disabilities,” she said.

The representatives of the Coca-Cola company did not respond to DT Next despite repeated efforts while the court has asked the company to produce the details of the appointment of these employees and respond to the complaint.

No discrimination, no rights deprivation, says firm’s HR

The HR Manager at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (P) Ltd, replying to the court notice, said the company has neither sought to discriminate among its personnel nor has deprived any of the 31 contract workmen employed by Sitics Logistic Solutions Pvt Ltd as the human resource provider of their basic rights to be employed.

The company stated: “Any grounds for discrimination under the RPD Act would only arise in a situation where persons with similar qualifications or persons in the same employee category are treated differently on grounds of disability, which is not the case here. In other words, the disability of the Contract Workmen has not been the ground for making any differentiation in their service conditions be it pay or regularisation of service (sic).”

The roles of the employees made permanent were completely different from the 31 complainants. These employees were never threatened for complaining, and will not be fired until the court proceedings conclude.

But working for a long duration would not by itself entitle them to the permanency of employment, it said. Sitics Logistic Solution Pvt Ltd said these employees are currently working as technicians, merchandisers and helpers.