Employees of Aircel, which has filed for bankruptcy in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), have threatened to register FIRs against the senior management and promoters for failing to pay salary dues to them.
In an email to the members of the Board and stakeholders, employees have asked for an immediate solution to various issues including taking back stocks of channel partners and retailers or giving them a written confirmation that the company will take back all stocks lying in the market.
They have also asked the company to pay back all their dues along with full provident fund and gratuity payments and severance packages. Besides, the company should allow mass unique porting code generation and share the codes with channel/customers/other operators.
The employees also said they have been receiving threats from channel partners.
They have also approached the Prime Minister’s Office with their pleas. “There is huge outstanding amount payable by the company to various vendors including security agency, housekeeping staff and distributors, and all these vendors are chasing the employees of the company and threatening the life of the employees,” Vivek Kumar, HR head for Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and UP (West), said in the letter.
Aircel has a debt of Rs 15,500 crore to lenders, apart from debt to operational creditors.
NCLT will hear the matter on March 8 as Aircel sought an urgent hearing on the issue as it needs to resume operations.
It had filed the plea for bankruptcy in NCLT on February 28 and had said the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process is not a proceeding for liquidation.
Aircel had said that intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses had together caused significant negative business and reputational impact on the company.
The company is owned 74% by Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd. Last year, it had proposed a merger with Reliance Communications Ltd but the plan failed due to regulatory and legal uncertainties. It also tried to restructure its debt with the lenders, but even that attempt failed.
Aircel is among the various operators which have suffered due to high competition after the entry of a new player Reliance Jio. Many telecom firms have exited the market – Airtel acquired Telenor and wireless business of Tata Group, Reliance Communications's wireless assets will be bought by Reliance Jio, and Vodafone and Idea Cellular have proposed a merger. The main players left in the fray include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Idea combine, Reliance Jio, BSNL and MTNL.
Aircel, ranked as the sixth player, had about 85 million subscribers. Now, subscribers are availing the mobile number portability to shift to a different telecom player. Aircel had recently shut its services in six circles - Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (West). The services were disrupted in rest of the circles due to the closure of sites at many locations.
DISTRESS CALL
- The employees have also asked the company to pay back all their dues along with full provident fund and gratuity payments and severance packages
- They also demand an immediate solution to various issues including taking back stocks of channel partners and retailers or giving them a written confirmation that the company will take back all stocks lying in the market
