They allege irregularities in payment of ex gratia; say association siphoned money

A group of 116 former employees of a thermometer factory run by Hindustan Lever at Kodaikanal has filed a joint writ petition in the Madras High Court accusing their association of having siphoned off a large portion of undisclosed amount of money paid as ex gratia to them by the company in 2016 for their exposure to toxic mercury vapour.

When the case came up for admission before Justices R. Subbiah and R. Pongiappan on Monday, they adjourned the hearing by two weeks. In an affidavit filed on behalf of the employees, the lead petitioner K. Sankaran, 75, said, 81 of them had worked in the factory for more than 18 years before 2001 when it was closed down due to pollution issues.

Thereafter, they came together to start Ponds Hindustan Lever Limited Ex Mercury Employees Welfare Association and filed a writ petition in 2006 seeking a direction to the company management to evolve a scheme for rehabilitation and healthcare of the former workers who were exposed to toxic mercury vapour. The case was pending in the court for 10 years and finally an out-of-court settlement was reached between the association and the management at the court’s instance. The company agreed to provide an undisclosed amount as ex gratia to its former employees considering all issues, including their future health care benefits.

Rightful share

“We, the beneficiaries, were never informed of the terms of the settlement. We were huddled in groups and asked to sign some papers without disclosing what was written in it. We were never given copies of the papers that we had signed. All these procedures were adopted to deprive us, the poor employees, of what was legally due to us,” the affidavit read. The petitioners alleged that a huge compensation was paid to about 60 individuals who were never employed in the factory. They claimed that the money was paid purely to satisfy the office-bearers who siphoned it off, depriving them of their rightful share. The petitioners also accused the office-bearers of having obtained their signatures on blank cheques in which the ex gratia amount was deposited and also on blank papers which were subsequently used as affidavits to be submitted to their former employer accepting the money that had been paid to them.

Contending that staff who had put in less than two years of service had been paid ₹40 to ₹60 lakh, people like them who had served for more than 18 years had been paid a pittance, they said.