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Staff’s future, production take a hit

The Maruti Suzuki Industries Limited (MSIL) announced a lockout at its violence-hit factory at Manesar in Haryana on Saturday.

The car manufacturer said it could no longer risk the lives of its employees in the plant where agitated workers went on a rampage on Wednesday, burning alive a senior management officer.

MSIL Chairman R C Bhargava on Saturday told reporters the company would restart operations in the plant only after enquiring into and ascertaining the causes of the unrest and taking all corrective measures. He, however, made it clear that the MSIL did not have any plan to shift its plant from Manesar.

With the MSIL declining to commit any time-frame to restart productions at the plant, over 3,000 permanent and contract employees now stare at an uncertain future. The lockout will also hit production of Maruti’s diesel cars like “Swift VDI”, “A-Star” and “Dzire VDI” and lead to longer waiting time for the buyers.

An altercation between a worker and a supervisor sparked off a scuffle last Wednesday. A frenzied mob of workers then assaulted a large number of executives, before setting some parts of the plant afire. While 91 management officials were injured, the burnt body of the company’s General Manager (Human Resource) Awanish Kumar Dev was found later.

“There is now a lockout. To me, what is more important is the safety of my colleagues than producing some cars to make some money,” said Bhargava. “We cannot put to risk lives of our people.” Asked when the company could restart operation at the Manesar plant, he said: “Maruti is not closed. We will be very inefficient if we take six months (to ascertain the causes of the problem and take corrective steps). I don’t think we are that bad.”

Though the MSIL or its earlier incarnation Maruti Udyog Limited did not have much of a problem due to labour unrests in its 31-year-long history, its plant at Manesar witnessed five strikes by the workers in 2011 itself. The plant, however, had been running smoothly since a 14-day-long strike ended on October 21 last with the MSIL accepting the agitating workers’ key demand for allowing them to register a union that was independent of another organisation  in the company’s factory in nearby Gurgaon.

Bhargava on Saturday said the MSIL had implemented almost all that it had committed to do in the tripartite agreement that was signed by the company, the State Government of Haryana and the workers. The company facilitated registration of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union in accordance with the workers’ demand, although the State Government of Haryana had some reservations on the issue.

The absence of pay-parity between permanent and contract employees has been one of the major issues that triggered unrest at the MSIL plant at Manesar. The company decided that the number of contract employees would be drastically brought down by March 2013 and no contract staff would be employed for any value-addition task. They would be given priority for recruitment as permanent employees.

“We were engaged in wage negotiations with the workers’ union and we never anticipated that such an incident could ever take place. It has come as a shocker and shattered us,” said Bhargava. The Suzuki Motor Corporation completely agreed with the MSIL’s decision to give priority to ensuring the safety of  the employees and suspend operations in the plant at Manesar. The MSIL is a subsidiary of the Suzuki Motor Corporation.

“Our policy is that we do not compromise on violence,” he said. The MSIL hoped that the Haryana government would conduct a thorough investigation.

Violence fallout

* Maruti Chairman R C Bhargava says company can no longer risk lives of employees
* Operations would restart in the plant only after causes were enquired into and corrective measures were taken
* Bhargava says company had implemented almost all that it had committed to do in the tripartite agreement between itself, Haryana government and workers
* Future of over 3,000 permanent and contract employees uncertain
* Production of premium diesel vehicles - Swift VDI, A-Star and Dzire VDI - will be hit