Workers Play Cards at Indian Factories as Asset Sales Founder
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Each day, about 2,800 workers punch their time-cards in and out of Hindustan Cables Ltd.’s factories in India. They get paid, receive the occasional raise and eat in subsidized canteens, even though they produce nothing.
The state-owned company, based in Kolkata, hasn’t made any cable since 2004 and has lost $549 million after cellular technology made its telephone wiring obsolete. Labor laws which the World Bank says are among the most restrictive anywhere and tortuous bankruptcy procedures, a legacy of India’s Soviet-era plan economy, mean the government can’t fire idle employees or sell assets such as machinery or land.