CHENNAI: For the first time since it became the sole retail vendor of alcohol in the state in 2003, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) has commenced work for a state-wide transfer counselling to rationalise the deployment of its roughly 24,000 sales staff in the 4,826 retail outlets it runs.
Tasmac officials said the intent behind the move is to streamline the operations through effective deployment of staff based on the sales volume of the outlets and to prevent scope for irregularities, especially by those working in the same outlets for several years. The sales staff include salesmen and supervisors.
A senior official told TNIE the shops have been divided into four categories based on their daily sales volume - above Rs 10 lakh, between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, and below Rs 2 lakh.
“So far, staff transfers were done within the same district. But we found that some salesmen have been working in the same shop for over 10 years, mainly due to the influence they wield because of their political or union affiliations. This has led to bribery and favouritism,” the official said.
The official said Tasmac has decided to transfer those who have been in the same outlet continuously for more than 10 years. “We are going to conduct state-wide counselling for staff transfers for the first time since 2003,” the official added.
T Dhanasekaran, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Tasmac Employees Association, affiliated to All India Trade Union Congress, urged the state to first frame service rules before conducting the state-wide counselling.
“We have been working for more than 20 years, but there is no clear service rule, no promotion, proper week-off, medical allowance or regular wage revision,” he said.
Supervisors, salesmen, and assistant salesmen who have been working for the past 20 years are receiving monthly salaries of Rs 16,850, Rs 14,530, and Rs 13,390 respectively. We do not have fixed weekly offs. Depending on the staff strength, we take one-day off in a week, said Dhanasekaran.
Though the shops are open for 10 hours a day, employees have to work for 12 to 13 hours due to additional responsibilities such as accounts maintenance and cleaning.
“We had requested shift-based work to reduce the burden, but our demand is still pending. The government must focus on employee welfare before taking up transfers,” he added.
Welcoming the transfer counselling, a section of employees TNIE spoke to urged Tasmac to implement a biometrics-based attendance system, which it had planned earlier, without delay.
A few salesmen, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged many supervisors regularly arrived late or even skipped duty altogether, because of the support they had politically or from unions. This leaves salesmen to open and run the outlets from noon to 10 pm, the official working hours. “Though the management is aware, no action is being taken,” a salesman added.