Tata Motors signs five-year wage settlement with Sanand workers

Introduces performance linked pay at Sanand; 10% of salary linked to productivity, quality & safety

Tata Motors on Friday signed a long-term wage settlement (LTS) with its Sanand workers' union that introduced a performance-linked payment system into the wage package. 

In line with the three-year wage settlement, from September 2015 to August 2018, signed with the Pune workers' Union, the country's largest automobile manufacturer has signed a similar performance-linked wage agreement at Sanand as well. 

Settlement would be vaild for a period of five years, from October 2015 to September 2020. The company claimed that the LTS has been agreed upon amicably. 

Company said it has alloted a total wage package of Rs 16,000 that will be spread across the LTS term uniformly. Gross increment includes a basic pay of 40 per cent, while the remaining 60 per cent fall under the allowances category. 

"In addition to the amount, the company has also introduced a performance-linked payment, which is accounted as 10 per cent of total salary and will be linked to productivity, quality and safety," the company statement said. 

Tata claimed that the new measurement of performance has been well received by its workers. The annual bonus, linked to performance and covering all permanent workers, was also agreed upon.

Among the other benefits offered to the workers during the settlement are extension of transport and canteen facilities, besides rationalisation of leave rules and allowing block closure days up to 24 days per year.

Gajendra Chandel, chief human resource officer,Tata Motors said, “We have strived to resolve the LTS issue and today we are delighted to have resolved the matter for a long term, ensuring our business operations’ competitiveness, while taking care of the well-being of our shop-floor colleagues. I would like to thank all the workers for their incessant support. They have been very co-operative and have supported the company at all times. Moreover, the Union which has been recently formed, is very supportive in ensuring workmen derive maximum benefits through this wage settlement.”

Workers have been negotiating terms of the wage settlement for more than one-and-a-half years now. Recently, they had boycotted meals from the plant canteen as a mark of protest against the delay in implementation. 

Hitesh Rabari,  president of Bharatiya Kamdar Ekta Sangh, Sanand, the labour department-recognised union at the Tata plant, said that the workers were indeed happy with the settlement. "It is an environment of celebration here at the plant. Everyone is happy with the settlement. We would be receiving arrears for eighteen months around October this year," he added.