Nokia gives steep salary hikes to Chennai staff; 200 percent hike for some

Following a wage pact, one-third of the employees at Nokia’s Chennai facility could enjoy a 200 percent salary hike, The Economic Times reports. Sources have told ET that roughly 3,000 of the 9,000 employees at the facility will earn Rs 21,000 per month, up from Rs 7,000 they previously earned. The other employees too will enjoy salary hikes of varying amounts.  

The report quoted State General Secretary of CITU, A Soundararajan, as saying, “There were around 20 rounds of negotiations that took place at the factory with the company officials, local office-bearers and CITU. Finally, on March 4, we signed an agreement.” The agreement that was signed before Assistant Labour Commissioner Dharmaseelan and A Soundararajan is for the period from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2016.

Of what is known at the moment, employees at the Chennai unit will now earn Rs 3,500 per month in the first year of employment. There will be a dearness allowance of Rs 300 that they will be given the following year. Third year onwards, the salary will be hiked to Rs 10,800 a month. The company has also initiated a death relief fund, through which it will give out Rs 5 lakh to the family of an employee dying from natural causes. 

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Salary hikes were introduced after a wage pact

Nokia, in an emailed response to ET, said, “As policy, we do not share specific details of wage agreements between Nokia and its employees. That said, we would like to confirm that Nokia India Private Ltd and Nokia India Employees Union, an independent union with no affiliation to central trade union, have entered into a long-term wage settlement that was signed recently in the presence of assistant labour commissioner Dharmaseelan. A Soundararajan, MLA and president and consultant to our trade union, represented the employees union." 

As most would know, Nokia today faces extremely tough competition from the likes of Samsung and Apple in the global smartphone market.

Most recently, the company has been in the news for its Lumia 620 smartphone. The Nokia Lumia 620 is the third and most affordable smartphone in its range of Windows Phone 8 devices. Nokia claims that Lumia 620’s body uses a new dual-shot colour technique to deliver a variety of colour and texture effects. Dual-shot adds a second layer of coloured, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary colour blends and depth effects. One can add a personal feel to the handset as there are seven different exchangeable shells to choose from. The Nokia Lumia 620 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Plus processors.