In March 2024, it was reported that since 2021, about 600 retired employees of J&K Cement have not received their retirement dues totalling Rs 184 crore, Totally frustrated, the J&K Cements Retired Employees Welfare Association has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in the matter.
These employees have yet to receive part of their salaries and pensionery benefits for the 2012 to 2017 period and their full salaries and benefits from 2018 till date.
About 120 employees who were part of the organisation for more than three decades have even passed away without receiving their due benefits.
The letter outlines the dismal condition of the families of these employees who have been struggling to make ends meets for the last ten years.
In the letter, the Association appeals to the PM issue an order to the Jammu and Kashmir government to pay the employees what is rightfully due to them. They wish for financial support from the government of the Union Territory till the disinvestment process of J&K Cements is concluded. The process has already been going on for almost four years now.
According to the Association, the government should have tried to revive the company by implementing the right corrective measures and policies instead of closing it down in August 2019. Timely financial assistance may have allowed the company to increase production and stay afloat, feel the employees.
While the government issued the global tenders for disinvestment of the company and the tendering process was scheduled to be completed by March 2023., all workers were accommodated in other government departments.
However, those who had retired or were about to retire did not get their dues or salaries.