With the project nearing completion, the management of the Punatsangchu-II Project has started downsizing the number of its employees. In a notification issued in June this year, the authority offered a voluntary resignation scheme to the contract employees. They were to submit their resignation letters by mid-July. More than a hundred employees submitted their voluntary resignation until mid-July. Sources say the project is planning to relieve around 250 employees. Meanwhile, the due date for the voluntary resignation has been extended to mid of this month.
The voluntary resignation scheme was offered mostly to the low-ranked staff such as work supervisors and non-technical employees of the project.
In the notification, the management had mentioned that the scheme includes three months’ salary besides gratuity and transfer grant. This scheme will not be provided to employees resigning after the given time.
BBS learnt that out of the hundred-plus employees who submitted voluntary resignations, more than twenty-five have been relieved from the service.
Some employees are in the process of submitting their voluntary resignation letters.
Sources say the project has completed 95 per cent of the overall work. Currently, works are ongoing to complete the construction of the powerhouse which is almost 90 per cent complete.
Some contract employees who did not want to be named say they understand that they should leave as their designated works in the project are nearing completion. However, some of them still want to work on the project until it is fully completed.
“I was to work for only three years when I initially joined the project. But I have dedicatedly served the project for many years now. I am also one of the employees resigning voluntarily. And I don’t have any bad feelings about the project. We are also told that we will get the salary of three months along with other benefits.”
According to sources, the project is planning to relieve around 250 contract employees.
While sources BBS talked to insist that there is no disgruntlement among those who have been offered the scheme, the project did not receive the required number of resignation letters by mid-July.
BBS learnt that the project is planning to implement a compulsory resignation scheme if it does not receive the expected voluntary resignation letters by next Friday.
The Minister for Energy and Natural Resources who is the chairman of the project said as projects are time-based, the employees are recruited on a contract basis and are required to leave the project as it is completed.
The employee said, they “have also received an order from the authority to continue staying in the project quarter till the closure of schools in December. So, I did not find the resignation giving us much problem. I have tendered my voluntary resignation right after receiving the notification from the office.”
Meanwhile, sources say Druk Green Power Corporation which will take over the project once it is completed is interviewing contract employees of the project to retain experienced and skilled ones.
The project currently has around 800 Bhutanese employees.
“We have many employees who are voluntarily resigning like me. While talking among ourselves, I found that there was no one against the scheme. We are willingly resigning. So, I don’t see a problem there.”
The 1,020-megawatt Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project is planned to be commissioned by October next year.
Changa Dorji, Wangdue Phodrang
Edited by Phub Gyem
