Expat staff of IL&FS arm claim salaries not paid for 3 months

While the IL&FS hostage crisis in Ethiopia is yet to be resolved, three expatriates employed by IL&FS Transportation (ITNL) — the road construction arm of IL&FS — for the Zojila Tunnel and Z-Morh Tunnel projects in Jammu and Kashmir claim that their salaries have not been paid for the last three months and that they are stuck in the Valley.

Richard Arthur Christenson from South Africa and Andrew Bettison from Britain were employed by ITNL as project manager and tunnel manager, respectively, while Serdar Sanel from Turkey is working on the Z-Morh tunnel project.

All the three expats joined the company in mid-2018 and have since then been posted in Gagangir, near Sonmarg, some 70 km from Srinagar. All of them had two-year contracts with a three-month notice period.

In November, soon after IL&FS crises broke, they received a notice of non-continuation of contract stating that they would be released from duty on March 2, 2019.

However, starting form November, none of them received any salary payment, they say.

“We have sent 15-20 emails, we have made attempts to call them (the IL&FS management)... When they answered, they said, ‘we will come back to you,’ but they have never done so,” Christenson told BusinessLine over telephone from Sonmarg.

The expats have also contacted officials from the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), a fully-owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, under which the project is implemented, but received no response.

“If they (the IL&FS management) just replied and told us, ‘yes, we have a problem, but you are going to get paid on this date’, we wouldn’t make a scene. But we have been totally ignored,” Christenson added.

The expats note that barring one or two people, all the local staff, including of sub-contractors, have been paid. According to Christenson, 300-400 people were employed on the project.

‘Facing liquidity issues’

An IL&FS spokesperson told BusinessLine : “The expats were employed by the SPV, which is currently facing liquidity issues. The SPV has decided to undertake several austerity measures to reduce cost, including optimisation of its workforce. Termination of employees is one such step and due notices have been given to these employees as per their contract terms.”

He added: “The SPV is making all round effort to generate liquidity and resolve pending issues”.

Sanjeev Malik, Executive Director, NHIDCL, neither responded to BusinessLine’ s query on the issue nor on the current status of the projects.

Prestigious contract

In his LinkedIn post titled “Banged Up Abroad in India”, Christenson warned other expats planning to work in India not to believe that the size or strength of a company means “it is stable or trustworthy” and that “legally binding Employment Contracts have very little standing and can be manipulated by the employer.”

“I had a good contract in Africa but I’ve come here on so many promises,” Andrew Bettison told BusinessLine, adding that the contract was prestigious and the project was even inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“They brought us there when they knew about money problems within the company,” he added.

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