The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation hopes to shed a staggering 4,000 of its 40,000 employees through its proposed voluntary retirement scheme.

The upstream major is looking forward to trimming its workforce considerably since employment opportunities in private sector oil companies have been proliferating after the dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism in the petroleum sector on April 1, 2002.

Some of the employees, besides being benefited by the attractive terms offered under the voluntary retirement scheme, may also be planning to take up jobs in other companies later.

Two other state-owned oil companies, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, have also submitted similar VRS proposals to the Cabinet. All the three schemes are expected to be taken up by the Cabinet at its meeting on June 24.

As per ONGC's proposal, which is similar to the scheme offered by the Indian Oil Corporation, those opting for voluntary retirement will get one-and-a-half months' basic pay along with dearness allowance for every year of service rendered to the corporation, or the basic pay plus dearness allowance for the remaining period of service, whichever is less.

In addition to this, the employee will get a percentage of his basic salary for the remaining period of his service.

This percentage has been worked out on slab-basis and varies in accordance with the number of years put in by the employee in the corporation.

Employees in the 50-plus age group and their spouse will also be given medical benefits enjoyed by employees retiring normally.

ONGC sources said the scheme would be implemented soon after the Cabinet approved it and would be open for at least three months.

The sources said the power to accept an employee's application for voluntary retirement would rest with the management.

The management would be vetting each case carefully and applications of those who were considered useful for the corporation's functioning would be rejected, they added.