MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Sept 19: The salary has been pending for eight months for the workers of the city-based Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd (HEC). Now some of them cannot even take out their own savings as the bank has frozen their accounts on loan default.
“I had taken a personal loan with HEC as the guarantor. My company is supposed to deduct the EMI from my salary and pay it to the bank directly. But they did not do it for a couple of months and the bank froze our accounts,” said employee MP Ramachandran.
The 32-year-old who took personal loan in 2018-19 from the State Bank of India (SBI), Hatia branch, in a 5-year agreement with HEC being the guarantor for constructing his house in Tamil Nadu, has been finding it difficult to manage his family without money.
“I cannot even take out my balance. I have a family to feed and I don’t have money to send to my parents. I have submitted a complaint to the office. I am somehow managing with loans from various people,” said Ramachandran, who is also the General Secretary of Hatia Kamgaar Union (HKU), affiliated to AITUC.
Ramachandran, who is on suspension since April 2022 for an alleged involvement in a brawl, has not received even the suspension allowance (50% of the pay) nor did HEC pay his EMIs to the SBI since April, as told by the worker.
For others, it is learnt that the company has recently paid the EMIs till July. The workers had received 15 days salary of January 2022 (about Rs 5,000) this month and even that has been withheld by the SBI for those who had taken personal loans.
HKU Vice President Laldeo Singh said, “There are dozens of employees whose bank accounts have been frozen including some of the engineers and officers but they prefer to remain silent. Workers cannot live without money. The salaries are low, there has been no revision for years, EMI amounts are high and now the penalties will add up.”
However, when contacted, HEC spokesperson and secretary Abhay Kant said, “I have found out from the finance department. All remittances to the bank have been going on in time. There may be other reasons for the SBI to stop their withdrawals.”
