BS reported that a senior official of TATA Steel indicated that the steel major might provide a rehabilitation package for the 1700 workers slated to lose their jobs due to the partial mothballing of its subsidiary Corus’ Teesside plant in Britain.

Mr RN Misra head of human resources and industrial relations legal, on the sidelines of an event organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce said that “Before we began the acquisition, we were aware that the size of the existing workforce at Corus would have to be brought down. The workers who will be laid off at Teesside could be rehabilitated through training and retraining. I am optimistic that something will be worked out.”

Mr Misra emphasized the fact that TATA Steel had not been witness to a worker-related conflict in over 80 years. He added that “The last strike at TATA Steel was in September 1928. Even though we have brought down the number of our employees from 78000 in 1995 to 30,000 now, we have not had an industrial dispute.”

Last week, Corus met with the UK’s National Steel Coordinating Committee and Teesside Multi Union representatives. The company had said that “All parties agreed to establish a joint task force to ensure all alternatives to mothballing are fully examined; to continue appropriate preparations should mothballing be required; and to oversee individual consultations with the workforce, which will begin in January.”

(Sourced from Business Standard)