New Delhi: The central government-owned
companies shed 31,000 employees during 2008-09, the year which
witnessed global economic downturn hitting the world economies
including India.
The number of people employed by the Central Public
Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) came down to 15.35 lakh at the end
of 2008-09 from 15.66 crore in the previous fiscal, the Public
Enterprises survey has stated.
The trimming of workforce took place in a year when the
overall increase in profits of the CPSEs neared Rs 1 lakh
crore from Rs 91,571 crore a year ago.
The employee strength of the CPSEs has been constantly
coming down since 2001-02 during which they had a staff of
about 20 lakh.
"A good number of CPSEs, are faced with a hight rate of
attrition, as employees are leaving to join other
organisations on account of higher salaries being offered
elsewhere," the survey said.
The wage bill of CPSEs went up by 28.67 per cent during
2008-09 to Rs 82,735 crore from Rs 64,300 crore in the year
ago period.
It also revealed that out of a total of 15.35 lakh people
employed by 242 CPSEs, only 1.29 lakh were women.
Women employees at the managerial and supervisory level
posts were highest in the telecommunication services (8,096)
followed by petroleum sector (2,957) and coal and lignite
(2,591) sectors in 2008-09.
CPSEs in the coal and lignite sector had the maximum
number of employees on their roll (4.27 lakh) followed by
telecommunication services (3.46 lakh) and steel (1.41 lakh).
While overall staff strength in the CPSEs was reduced in
2008-09, companies in some sectors including oil, minerals,
chemicals, transmission and heavy engineering added workforce.
The heavy engineering sector hired over 1,700 people and
the oil sector added 1,200 workforce.
As per the survey, since the introduction of voluntary
retirement scheme in October 1988 to March 2009, about 6.1
lakh CPSE employees have opted for VRS.
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 02, 2010, 21:25