The Hindu Business Line : Clarification

This refers to “Corporate social irresponsibility?” (Business Line, November 20). We would like to point out some glaring inaccuracies that create impressions contrary to facts. The piece has suggested that Ashok Leyland is “asking its workers to go half pay for three days in a week”.

The fact is that full salaries are being paid despite non-working days.Half the non-working days are treated as special leave and the other half would be compensated for when required in future.

Your own newspaper in its November 19 piece titled “Beyond bailouts” says: “Commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland has shown the way in this regard.

“Instead of cutting the workforce to cope with a demand slump, plants may work for fewer days in the week till the crisis lasts but workers get the full wage, promising to put in extra hours at a later time when demand picks up and additional output is needed”.

The piece draws selective comparisons between the organised sector and domestic help and expresses generic opinions about national labour practices.

To drag into the middle of it, the name of a Company that has taken a fairly unique step that protects the Company’s financial health and equally the employee interest and salaries , a Company with a tradition of managerial cadres voluntarily sharing the pain by taking salary cuts during the industry downturns — that is hurting irony, to say the least.

Thomas T. Abraham, Special Director, Corporate Communications, Ashok Leyland, Chennai

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