Madras High Court cracks down on demonstrators at India Yamaha Motor Ltd

The court has also issued a notice to workers and given them two weeks' time to respond

In response to a petition filed by India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd, which is facing protests from a section of its employees, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the police department to ensure that demonstrations and lawful trade union activities were held 200 metres away from the factory premises. The court also issued a notice to workers and gave them two weeks’ time to respond.

An order issued by Justice P Rajamanickam, on a petition filed by the company earlier, said that until the workers responded to the notice, the Inspector of Police, Sriperumbudur, needed to ensure that demonstrations and other lawful trade union activities were held 200 metres away from the factory premises.

India Yamaha Motor workers have been protesting inside the factory since last Friday. According to S Kannan, District President, Kanchipuram, CITU, around 750 workers out of the 800 permanent workers are on strike in the facility. While the company did not respond to queries from Business Standard, Kannan said that production had come down significantly due to the strike.

The company, in its petition, had asked the court to direct the police to provide adequate protection for ingress and egress of vehicles and movement of people into and out of the factory premises.

The workers have alleged that the company management is not allowing formation of a new union and took action against workers who were trying to form the union.