Daijiworld Media Network - Kerala (SR)
Kerala, Aug 30: Thanks to CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions), an affiliate of the current ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that Muthoot Finance, the country's largest gold financing company in terms of loan portfolio, is on the verge of shutting down its branches in Kerala.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Muthoot Finance said, "The company has taken a decision that branches which are not able to be opened because of the physical obstruction by CITU workers will be closed. All employees of the branch will be retrenched after meeting all statutory compliances required in this regard. In spite of the low business volume, the company has shown keenness to continue its business in Kerala as it is our home state. But if the threatening and forceful closure of our branches by the CITU workers is continued and branch remain closed due to no fault of ours, we will have no other option but to close down those branches."
As per the finance company, in the last three years few employees had joined a trade union in Kerala under the outfit named Non-Banking and Private Finance Employees Association. Since this constituted only a small minority, this trade union was not required to be recognised as per present regulations in place. "The outfit has declared an indefinite strike in branches in Kerala from August 20. Though a large majority of our employees are not part of this strike, they are unable to open branches because of the threats or forcible closure. The staff is being threatened for life if they open branches," the company said. Muthoot Finance's business in Kerala is only 4.57 per cent, that is Rs 1,600 crore of its total gold loan portfolio of Rs 35,000 crore.
As reported in ANI, some of the staff who dared to open the branches were threatened or physically assaulted leading to forcible closure of branches by CITU workers. Company officials said, out of 623 branches in Kerala, 265 were opened for transactions today, of which 15 branches have been forcibly closed. Yesterday, 224 branches were opened for transactions of which 47 were forcibly closed.
The finance company asserted, "The proposed actions will not have any material impact on the company's financials as a business in Kerala is not material to our overall business."