Workers clueless about Mitsubishi plant being in red

HALDIA: Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation (MCC) PTA India approached the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction almost a year ago, but its workers are still in the dark.
A group of workers walking out of the factory after the 3pm shift change on Wednesday had no clue that the company was sick. “You must be misinformed. There is no question of the company turning sick,” said worker Manoranjan Jana.“The plant is working at full capacity now while it was performing at 70% capacity a few months back,” he added as he kick-started his bike.
The truth is bitter. The Fortune 500 company reported erosion of net worth in its statutory filing to the corporate affairs ministry. The company informed BIFR and asked to contemplate MCC PTA as a sick unit. BIFR is yet to take any decision.
MCC PTA is the country’s second largest manufacturer of PTA — a raw material used in making high performance multi-purpose plastics. It employs around 330 permanent staff and 600 on contractual basis. “Why should they declare the company sick? There has never been any labour unrest. Workers always tried to meet deadlines,” said Jana.
Union leaders, too, seemed unaware of the company approaching BIFR although they know it is running on loss. “Had the company been sick, it would have affected employee benefits. On the other hand they have started renewing the surety agreement with workers,” said Pabitra Jana, president of Trinamool Congress backed employees’ union. Only on Tuesday, workers’ representatives had a meeting with the management in the presence of labour minister Malay Ghatak.
“We are yet to sign the agreement but we have already reached an acceptable level. In fact, the management has agreed to pay arrears since 2012,” said Milan Mandal, working president of the Trinamool-backed union. “If the company is going through tough times then workers will definitely cooperate,” said Santanu Das, secretary of the Citu-backed employees’ union.
While none of the officials responded to any phone calls or text messages during the day, sources said that the company officials had a series of meetings on Wednesday. “The company has been making losses due to oversupply of PTA and undersupply of PX. Many of the production units in India have suffered due to series of shutdowns in many PTA units,” said an official.
In its report a few months back, India Ratings & Research-a Fitch Group Company said that the performance of the company has been weak in last two fiscals. “MCPI was referred to the BIFR due to sustained EBITDA (pre-tax earnings) losses in financial year 2013 and 2012. This trend is likely to have continued in FY14 and could remain so for FY15,” the company wrote in the report, adding that losses in FY 13 resulted in complete erosion of its net worth.
The rating agency feels that the company remains integral to the core business of its Japanese parents. “There is no fiscal issue pending with the state government. We are availing the special package given by the state in January 2014. Our wage negotiations has been successfully completed yesterday,” said Manabu Chikumoto, MD, MCC PTA.
Tamluk MP Subhendu Adhikari feels there is no reason for worry. “As far as I know, the management had to report it to the BIFR as they were making losses. Had they been sick they wouldn’t have held a meeting with the labour minister. They have been provided with the facilities they have asked for. They must keep their word.”