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21 October, 2011 The 14-day-long strike at Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant has been called off this morning following a tripartite agreement between the management, workers and the Haryana Government.
As part of the agreement, the management has agreed to take back 64 permanent workers but another 30 will remain suspended. It has also been agreed that around 1,200 casual workers would also be reinstated, sources privy to the talks said.
Setting up of two committees for grievance rederssal and labour welfare was also agreed in order to provide a harmonious working environment at the plant. The agreement came at the end of several rounds of talks, since Wednesday in the presence of senior officials of the Haryana government.
Before reaching the agreement, it is understood that MSI management individually considered the cases of all employees against whom disciplinary action had been taken and evaluated the severity of indiscipline in each case.
Wherever the charges were not serious, the sources said, MSI management decided to take back the employees. The agreement provides that 64 employees will be taken back, they said. “However, in case of another 30 employees, the charges were found to be of serious nature. The agreement provides that these employees are suspended,” a source said.
As far as the casual workers are concerned, the MSI agreed to take them back to meet requirements of the ongoing expansion at the Manesar plant.
Workers at the plant have been on strike since October 7 demanding reinstatement of about 1,200 casual workers and 44 permenant workers who have been suspended following an agreement signed on October 1 to end a 33-day-long standoff, along with 50 workers who have been dismissed or suspended during the current stir. As per the agreement, workers will face no work, no pay for the duration of the strike.
The agreement also provides for the setting up of a ‘Labour Welfare Committee’ to promote measures for good relations between the management and workers. The committee will comprise members from the management as well as workers. It is understood that the company has also agreed to arrange for transport services for workers in line with shift timings.
Workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL) and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) who had also gone on strike from October 7 in support of their colleagues at Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) have also agreed to call off their strike. The company said it produced 1,997 vehicles at the Gurgaon and Manesar facilities on Thursday with the Manesar plant rolling out 200 cars with 600 workers on duty.
MSI board will be meeting on October 29 to consider among other things, a proposal for setting up of a new plant in Gujarat.

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29 September, 2011 A fresh round of talks to end the month-long unrest at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, remained inconclusive on Wednesday.
The negotiations between the company and the representatives of Gurgaon plant-based Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) and workers of the Manesar unit yielded little result, triggering the possibility of fresh industrial protests in the region.
Union workers at the Gurgaon plant said they were still working with the Maruti management to resolve the crisis. “We have had several rounds of talks, but the issue is struck on the reinstatement of all the 62 sacked workers. While Maruti has agreed to take back 18 trainee workers and may convert the status of some dismissed workers to suspension, we are expecting some positive outcome from the negotiations,” MUKU general secretary Kuldeep said.
“We would decide our course of action in a day or two as we are still hopeful of some positive outcome from the current round of negotiations,” said Rajesh Kumar, general secretary of Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union, though he did not rule out a flash protest in a day or two if the standoff continues.

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08 June, 2011 India’s largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki has lost an estimated 20 million dollars since the start of a strike at its factory in the north of the country, a company source said on Tuesday.
The source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media on the subject, said production losses since the start of the strike on Saturday were between 800-900 million rupees.
The stoppage has led to a loss in production of about 1,800 cars since the walk-out by a group of workers demanding recognition of a new union.
The Japanese-controlled firm on Monday sacked 11 of its 2,000-strong employees on its production line at Manesar in the northern state of Haryana. “There is no work at the Manesar plant. The workers have refused to come to work”, the company official told AFP.
Maruti produces about 1,200 cars each day in two shifts at the production facility, mainly the high-end mid-sized cars like the Swift Dzire and the SX4.
The strike comes as Maruti car sales grew by 1.9 percent year-on-year to 104,073 in May, its slowest pace of growth in nearly three years, as demand for cars in India moderates due to rising input costs and costlier auto loans.
“There is no clear charter of demands. They cannot simply say they want a change”, the source added, calling the walk-out “illegal” as no notice had been given.
The company said delivery and sales of cars were unlikely to be affected. Its shares fell for the second straight day at the Bombay Stock Exchange, down as much as two percent to a day’s low of 1,206 rupees on Tuesday, in response to the strike.

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10 June, 2011 The strike at Maruti Suzuki’s plant in Manesar town of Haryana entered its sixth day on Thursday with talks between the workers and management failing to resolve the deadlock over the creation of a second workers’ union.
“Though the talks are going on, our stand is clear. The strike is illegal as no intimation was given to us,” Maruti Suzuki India chairman R.C. Bhargava said. He added that some government agencies, including Haryana’s labour commission, were supporting the management.
According to him, the company had suffered a production volume loss of around 5,400 cars till Thursday, including 600 units on the first day of the strike on Saturday. The total loss has been pegged at around Rs.180 crore.
“Our losses are currently pegged at around 5,400 cars since Saturday,” he said, adding that the halt in production will have a short-term impact. “Currently, dealers have enough stock for some 28 days of petrol-segment cars, while a short-term effect may be felt for some diesel variants, which in itself is only 20 percent of our entire portfolio,” he said.
The company’s facility at Manesar produces the company’s bestseller hatchbacks and sedans like the Swift, Swift Dzire, A-Star and SX4.
The majority of the automobile giant’s production takes place at its remaining three plants in Gurgaon district.
According to another Maruti official, the strike has the support of around 2,000-odd workers, out of whom 11 were sacked Monday for demanding recognition of a separate workers’ union.

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