Maruti’s output heading for total halt

The strike by workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL) and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) in support of their colleagues at Maruti Suzuki India’s (MSI) Manesar plant have worsened the situation.

“The Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki continues to remain captive in the hands of striking workers. No production took place at the plant today,” MSI said in a statement. It said,”The production at the company’s Gurgaon plant has further come down today as there was no supply of diesel engines and also transmissions from SPIL due to workers remaining on strike at SPIL plant. The Gurgaon plant produced only 1,000 units today.”

The company had yesterday rolled out 1,800 units from Gurgaon as against a normal daily production of 2,800 units. A series of strikes at the Manesar plant since June this year has resulted in excise revenue losses to the tune of nearly Rs 350 crore for the government,while the company has already suffered a hit of up to Rs 1,540 crore with a total production loss of 51,375 units so far. Because of the strike,exclusive component suppliers to MSI fear heavy losses during this festival season. They have sought intervention of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda — who alongwith his ministerial colleagues,is busy in Hisar for by-election on October 13 – to help resolve the issues.

Meanwhile,a senior official of the Haryana Labour department told PTI,”A notice has been issued to workers yesterday for breaching the terms of settlement,which was signed with the management in the presence of officials of state labour department.”

Workers could not be reached for comments on the notice. On the other hand,central trade unions (CTUs) have asked the state and central governments to intervene immediately to settle the issues amicably and restore industrial peace.

“CTUs condemn the highhanded provocative activities of Maruti Suzuki management in this dispute,where the basic issue is the right of the workers to form their own trade union,” a joint statement by the unions said. It said that disallowing casual workers to resume work is not in “conformity with the spirit of clause of the settlement” that was reached on October 1 Workers at MSI’s Manesar plant went on stay-in strike on Friday afternoon completely affecting production at the plant. The number of workers,who went on strike,was around 2,000,including regular,contractual,apprentices and trainees. The number,however,came down to about 1,500 after the company “rescued” some workers,who were “held under duress”. The company alleged that the striking workers attacked co-workers,supervisors and executives in multiple incidents of violence and damaged factory properties inside the plant. The workers,however,denied any such acts and said they were “manhandled by company bouncers”. They have gone on strike,demanding reinstatement of over 1,000 casual workers and 44 permanent employees,who were suspended during the standoff that started on August 29. On Sunday,MSI dismissed 10 workers,terminated 5 trainees and suspended 10 employees in connection “with the strike and violence at the Manesar factory premises”. As per the pact reached on October 1,the company had agreed to conditionally take back suspended 18 trainees. The workers in turn had agreed to sign the ‘good conduct bond’,which said that they would “not resort to go slow,intermittent stoppage of work,stay-in-strike,work-to-rule,sabotage or otherwise indulge in any activity,which would hamper the normal production in the factory”. In June also,MSI had witnessed a 13-day-long strike at the Manesar plant by the workers demanding recognition of a new labour body — Maruti Suzuki Employees Union. The stir had resulted in a production loss of 12,600 cars,which were valued at about Rs 630 crore. Shares of MSI today closed 0.14 per cent up at Rs 1,074.75 apiece on the BSE from their previous close.