It was supposed to happen on November 1, but seems Nokia has stopped producing phones in the Chennai plant already. As per the reports, Nokia announced `No production day’ from Friday until October 31 since the last batch of orders was completed on Thursday itself.
Microsoft had recently decided to kill Nokia X, Asha and Nokia Feature Phones as part of its major restructuring post Nokia-Microsoft deal closure. It has subsequently decided to terminate the service agreement signed earlier at the time of deal-closure between Nokia and Microsoft. This service agreement envisaged Microsoft continuing with orders for its low-end handsets to be manufactured by new Nokia, as the plant was not transferred to Microsoft, due to asset-freeze imposed by Supreme court over tax-issues.
Nokia has agreed for 20% Diwali bonus to it existing employees as a parting gift and is willing to pay full salaries to workmen post November 1 till settlement.
Nokia is said to be willing to pay full salaries to workmen post November 1 too, with the hope of an “amicable settlement with minimum impact,” sources said.
“As a parting shot, notwithstanding all the gloom the factory witnessed over the past year, the company agreed to a 20% Diwali bonus like last year. “Each employee will get around Rs 8,400 as bonus,” union sources said.
Nokia has asked for Government’s nod to sell the Chennai plant and it has proposed to deposit the money generated out of plant sales to an escrow account as directed by Supreme court earlier
