Good time: HMT unit posts profit for fifth successive year

AT A time when the governnent is mulling to shut down three units of HMT: HMT Watches, HMT Chinar Watches and HMT Bearing, another HMT unit Hindustan Machine Tools’ Kalamassery unit has posted net profit of over Rs. 2 crore during 2014-15.

The PSU unit also looks strong for the next financial year.

It may be mentioned that keeping the momentum of good show, the PSU has recorded profit for the fifth successive year.

The PSU unit has also...
surpassed the target of Rs. 72 crore set for the last financial year.

The total business turnover during the last year was about Rs. 74 crore.

The last financial year the HMT unit was part of the maiden venture that joined two government undertakings-Bharat Electronics and Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory-to manufacture directing gear for sonars in naval ships. Fresh orders for the same gear are expected this year.

The HMT unit made a profit of over Rs. 5 crore during 2013-14 over a total business turnover of Rs. 64 crore. Business target set for the current financial year is Rs. 82 crore.

The unit had received orders worth about Rs. 30 crore for computerized numerically controlled lathes.

However there is a catch. The trade union is concerned about the falling number of employees at the unit.

They pointed out that without appointment of fresh hands the unit’s profitability could be hit.

In a related development, HMT Employees’ Union, CITU, has demanded that the 2007 wage revision should be implemented immediately.

They also pressed for fresh recruitment.

A statement issued recently by General Secretary of the Union K. Chandran Pillai described the HMT Kalamassery unit as the sole engineering unit in the State making continuous profit and called for immediate implementation of the wage revision.

Pillai recalled that employees were in protest mode for 1,520 days before the government agreed to a wages revision in 22 years in February 2014.

Even during the protest action, started on January 1, 2010, the unit never went into loss, the statement added.

Kalamssery unit now operated with 290 employees on its rolls and 250 contract workers, The Hindu reported quoting trade union sources..

Around 200 of them will retire in three years, which may pose a serious threat to the functioning of the unit.