Aituc chief urges PM to intervene in Maruti standoff

The workers union at Maruti Suzuki’s factory at Manesar, Gurgaon, has appealed to the Prime Minister for intervention in their dispute with the management.

Gurudas Dasgupta, MP and president of the Communist Party of India-affiliated All India Trade Union Congress had met the PM once on the subject and is scheduled to do so again tomorrow. He is urging the PM to speak to Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the standoff. The union says the state government has been taking a pro-management line in this and earlier disputes.

The area’s deputy labour commissioner said he had not got any complaint so far and, hence, had not intervened.

The management is insisting all 1,000-odd regular workers at Manesar sign a specified undertaking on good conduct if they wish to enter the premises. It says: “I agree that if on joining duty I am found indulging in 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, I will be liable to be dismissed from service without notice, as provided under the certified standing orders.”

The management says many employees had been sabotaging production, It blames them for a large number of recently manufactured and defective products.

The union says only around 30 workers have so far signed the code of conduct. “Who would sign their own death warrant?” says D L Sachdeva, secretary of the union.

He said the management's allegations were ploys to prevent the workers from forming a union at Manesar, an issue that has seen labour turmoil in the past, notably a 13-day strike in June, when the workers here insisted on forming a union instead of buing represented by the officially recognised one, based at the Gurgaon factory.

“They (management) are not willing to give any data on defective vehicles beyond the last three four days when the lockout has been there. There should be data on defective cars since June 16, when the workers rejoined work after the earlier strike,'' says Sachdeva.

“We don’t appreciate sabotaging work or doing defective work. But the solution for such practices is in dialogue with the labour commissioner or the workers and not in illegal action against the workers.”

The workers at Manesar had earlier boycotted a union election held at the Gurgaon unit.

“The workers want their own union and their application had been rejected earlier. They have re-applied,” says Sachdeva.

He said appealing to the high court was an option. Sachdeva says 11 workers had been dismissed, without a chargesheet since the latest trouble (“lockout”) began and a further seven were dismissed yesterday.