KOCHI: Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy has said that the revival package for HMT Machine Tools is in its final stage of implementation.
The minister conveyed this during a telephonic conversation with National Confederation of HMT Unions president K Chandran Pillai and in a meeting with workers during his visit to the HMT unit at Kalamassery on Friday morning.
According to the minister, the package will include settlement of retirement benefits for retired employees, wage revision, modernisation of the firm, and fresh recruitment to strengthen human resources.
The revival package was first announced during Kumaraswamy’s visit to the Kalamassery HMT unit on August 19, 2024. Following this, a high-level technical committee headed by NITI Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat was constituted to study the issue.
Though the committee submitted its report to the ministry of heavy industries in the first half of 2025, the package has not yet been implemented.
Employees pointed out that salary arrears have now entered the third month, while the company is struggling even to disburse retirement benefits. They warned that delays in implementing the package were worsening the crisis faced by the public sector undertaking.
The Kalamassery HMT unit had reportedly remained profitable until the 2023 financial year but has been running at a loss for the past three years.
