RINL Non-Executives Bear the Brunt of Financial Crisis as Management Restores Perks for Executives – Indian PSU

RINL’s financial crisis appears to have two different faces: Executive perks are reportedly back at 46%, while non-executive employees continue to struggle for financial relief ahead of Diwali.

Employees allege that management has completed executive promotions and resumed disbursing perks, even as their own benefits remain suspended under the September 21, 2024, HR Policy Circular No. 09/24, which cited the company’s critical financial condition.

The disparity is particularly stark. According to employee accounts, an executive drawing a gross monthly salary of ₹2 lakh has been receiving around ₹22,000 in perks for the past two months. Meanwhile, a non-executive earning ₹44,000 a month claims to have received not a single rupee in comparable relief.

With household grocery bills, school fees and other expenses mounting, non-executives say they are being pushed into financial distress. The Dussehra bonus has reportedly not been paid for four years, and employees are now demanding the release of pending salaries and overdue benefits before Diwali.

Repeated representations have allegedly failed to produce any meaningful relief.

The crisis is also affecting younger employees. Recruits from the last two batches are reportedly worried about their ability to afford marriage, while married employees fear the financial burden of childbirth and raising children.

The situation is compounded by declining manpower and mounting workloads, leaving an increasingly demoralised workforce to shoulder additional responsibilities without corresponding financial security.

Although CMD-level interactions with newly recruited employees have reportedly taken place, workers say such engagement must translate into concrete action. They also allege that unions have become ineffective in securing relief.

RINL’s financial difficulties are well known, but employees are questioning why the burden appears to fall disproportionately on non-executives. If executive perks can be restored, they want management to explain why the financial hardship of lower-paid employees continues to be ignored.

The question confronting RINL management is simple: why should employees earning ₹44,000 a month continue to suffer in the name of a financial crisis when executive benefits are reportedly being restored?

SS Chandra Rao, Deputy Secretary General of the National Confederation of Officers’ Associations (NCOA), told indianpsu.com that allowances such as transport, canteen, washing, gas cylinder and the 6% special allowance have not been stopped for non-executives.

Rao also highlighted the long-standing disparity in pay revisions. Executives are on the 2007 pay scale, with subsequent pay revision benefits, while non-executives’ last wage revision was in 2012. The 2017 pay and wage revisions for both categories remain pending under the affordability clause.

According to Rao, employees in both categories are now caught in a conflict that the management’s policies have helped create, diverting attention from their common concerns over pending pay revisions and the company’s financial condition.

Editor’s Note:

RINL’s recovery cannot be measured by financial restructuring alone. It must also be judged by whether the people who keep Visakhapatnam Steel Plant running are treated with fairness and dignity.