KOCHI: About 100 employees lost their jobs when BlueLabs Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd closed down without settling their salaries and the rentals due to two Infoparks at Kakkanad and Koratty.
The employees have not been paid since February and several of them are due to get amounts that run into more than a lakh.
Meanwhile, the company has moved out of Infopark following the notice issued by the latter. “It has a large amount due to the Infopark and has stopped operating from here. We are planning to adopt legal measures to reclaim our dues,” a top Infopark official said. Unofficial figures state that BlueLabs owes about Rs 35 lakhs to Infopark alone.
The employees have submitted a written complaint to the Infopark stating that the company and its CEO, Mathews Jose, have been adopting unfair practices and owe a large amount to the employees, vendors and service providers. “Citing client payment issues, the CEO delayed payment from February 2010 and promised to sort out issues as soon as possible. While it is understandable that a business can have a downturn, it was shocking to know that even Provident Fund and Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) were never paid to the respective offices. When we checked with the PF department, we were informed that accounts were created only for 10-15 staff, and only small payments were made. With regard to TDS, Form 16 was never issued. We have come to know that these amounts were never paid,” the complaint said. It is learnt that the company had not been paying the amounts as enquiries at the PF office revealed that the salary of several employees has not been paid. The dismissed employees have given a written complaint to the PF office against the company.
“There were about 98 employees. It is the mismanagement of the CEO that eventually led to the downfall. My pending salary is more than Rs 2.5 lakh (six months salary),” said an employee who is now looking for another job.
Ironically, though some companies have had tough times during recession and could not pay their dues to Infopark, most of them had settled the payments when the business recovered. “During recession, we ourselves had been lenient towards companies and gave them time to meet their financial commitments. This is a rare instance when a company has created such a situation here,” said a top official.
kochi@expressbuzz.com
