Maruti reaches out to other HR heads over Manesar violence

The meeting focussed on the role that HR personnel must play in order to avoid violent incidents

Hit by unprecedented violence at its Manesar plant, Maruti Suzuki India has reached out to top human resource heads of India Inc, as it seeks to avoid a repeat of the July 18 incident, in which one senior official was killed, elsewhere.

Top HR minds in India, including Santrupt Misra of Aditya Birla Group, Satish Pradhan of Tata Sons, P Dwarakanath of Max India, Aquil Busrai (ex-IBM India) and Price Augustine of Mahindra & Mahindra and Pankaj Bansal of People Strong were among those who brainstormed with Maruti Suzuki India Chief Operating Officer (Administration) SY Siddiqui last week.

"It was an initiative I had taken up to share with them the experience of what had happened at Manesar plant and also to get a perspective from them," Siddiqui, who is also the President of National HRD Network, told PTI.

The exercise focussed on how such industrial issue should be handled and the role that HR people must play in order to avoid it happening not only in Maruti Suzuki but in other companies elsewhere, he added.

When contacted, People Strong CEO Pankaj Bansal said: "It was more of sharing of experience. It was about how we should react to such instances and going forward what are the steps needed to avoid a repeat of such violence anywhere in any company."

The other top HR honchos who attended the meeting include Arvind Agrawal (RPG Group), Bimal Rath (ex-Nokia India), Yash Yadav of Goodyear, Rajeev Dubey (Mahindra & Mahindra) and Ester Martinez (Founder & Managing Editor of People Matters).

On steps taken up by Maruti Suzuki in order to return to normalcy after declaring a lockout at the Manesar plant on July 21, Siddiqui said: "Our priority remains the welfare and safety of our employees."

Reiterating the company's stance of not compromising on violence, he said Maruti Suzuki is cooperating with the Haryana Police to identify the culprits.

"It is too early for us to talk about sacking workers or hiring new at the Manesar plant. At the moment we are not thinking about restoration of production," Siddiqui said.

Following the violence, in which one senior executive was killed and 100 others were injured, the company had declared an indefinite lockout at the Manesar plant on July 21 saying the safety and welfare of the employees were paramount. Work at Gurgaon plant continues to be normal.

The company had last week said it formed a 25-member team, drawn from its various departments, to take care of the injured employees.

The Haryana government had formed a special investigation team (SIT), headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravinder Tomar, to probe the incident. The police have so far arrested nearly 100 workers. The state government has also appointed eminent criminal lawyer KTS Tulsi as special public prosecutor for the trial of the accused in violence.