CorroHealth has agreed to pay an additional five months’ gross salary to nearly 800 employees who were terminated from its Kochi and Kozhikode offices earlier this month, following a meeting convened by the Kerala government on Monday.
Labour Minister Bindu Krishna said the discussions, attended by MLA Uma Thomas and senior Labour Department officials, were successful. The company has agreed to make the payment by July 26, in addition to the salary already credited to the employees.
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The minister said the Labour Department had been actively involved since the issue was brought to its attention, with multiple rounds of talks involving the Labour Commissioner, Special Secretary and the minister herself. During Monday’s meeting, CorroHealth initially proposed relocating around 12 per cent of the affected employees to its other centres. However, workers argued that relocation offered no guarantee of job security, prompting the company to instead agree to the compensation package.
CorroHealth also assured employees that it would facilitate their transition to new jobs by issuing experience certificates, relieving letters without adverse remarks, and extending full support for background verification.
The layoffs had triggered protests, with employees alleging that the company credited two to three months’ salary into their bank accounts immediately after announcing the retrenchment, despite the matter being under conciliation before the Labour Department. While CorroHealth defended the layoffs by citing provisions of the new Central Labour Code on fixed-term employment, the Kerala government rejected the argument, stating that the Code has not yet been implemented in the state and therefore cannot override existing labour laws.
