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Sail's Voluntary Retirement Scheme

INTRODUCTION

At a meeting of the board of directors in June 1999, the CEOs of Steel Authority of India's (SAIL) four plants - V. Gujral (Bhilai), S. B. Singh (Durgapur), B.K. Singh (Bokaro), and A.K. Singh (Rourkela) made their usual presentations on their performance projections. One after the other, they got up to describe how these units were going to post huge losses, once again, in the first quarter[1] of 1999-2000. After incurring a huge loss of Rs 15.74 billion in the financial year 1998-99 (the first in the last 12 years), the morale in the company was extremely low. The joke at SAIL's headquarters in Delhi was that the company's fortunes would change only if a VRS was offered to its CEOs - not just the workers.
BACKGROUND NOTE

SAIL was the world's 10th largest and India's largest steel manufacturer with a 33% share in the domestic market. In the financial year 1999-2000, the company generated revenues of Rs. 162.5 billion and incurred a net loss of Rs 17.2 billion. Yet, as on February 23, 2001, SAIL had a market valuation of just Rs. 340.8 billion, a meager amount considering the fact that the company owned four integrated and two special steel plants.
SAIL was formed in 1973 as a holding company of the government owned steel and associated input companies. In 1978, the subsidiary companies including Durgapur Mishra Ispat Ltd, Bokaro Steels Ltd, Hindustan Steel Works Ltd, Salem Steel Ltd., SAIL International Ltd were all dissolved and merged with SAIL. In 1979, the Government transferred to it the ownership of Indian Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (IISCO) which became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIL.


SAIL operated four integrated steel plants, located at Durgapur (WB), Bhilai (MP), Rourkela (Orissa) and Bokaro (Bihar). The company also operated two alloy/special steel plants located at Durgapur (WB) and Salem (Tamil Nadu). The Durgapur and Bhilai plants were pre-dominantly1ong products[2] plants, whereas the Rourkela and Bokaro plants had...