Toyota reduces waiting period to three weeks

Dispute over wage hike is pending at Tribunal

Even as the standoff between Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM) and its employees union ended with effect from April 22, 2014, the dispute over wage renewal has been referred to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal for adjudication. The company has, however, restored normalcy in production at both its passenger car manufacturing plants at Bidadi, 35 kms from here.

"We have restored normalcy in car production and 4,200 Group 8 workers have returned to work at our plants. We have initiated departmental inquiry on 30 employees who were suspended on disciplinary grounds. The matter over wage negotiation is pending in the Tribunal and its order is binding on both the management and workers' union," said Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman & Director, TKM.

The production of passenger cars has crossed over 700 units per day, he said. The production had declined to around 300-350 units during the strike period in the months of March and April.

However, he said, the management is open to settle the matter out of court if the workers are willing to sign the wage contract offered by the management at any point in time. Wage hike for 2013-14 is pending for all its workmen. "We have raised our wage hike offer to Rs 3,100 per month as suggested by the government of Karnataka. If the workers are ready to accept our offer, we are ready to end the dispute amicably," he told Business Standard.

The Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees Union (TKMEU) had demanded a wage hike of Rs 8,000 per month and scaled it down subsequently to Rs 4,000 per month during the negotiations. It is, however, is not ready to accept anything below this level, the TKMEU had said during the negotiations at the labour commissioner office.

Meanwhile, with operations almost being normalised, Toyota India is working actively to bring down the waiting period to 3 weeks from close to two months. The waiting period had gone up to close to two months after the workers had resorted to go-slow strike at its plants. Subsequently, the company had imposed lockout on March 16, 2014 in order to avoid any damage to its staff and machinery. It lifted the lockout on March 24, 2014 but employees did not resume work as they objected to signing a good conduct undertaking as demanded by the company and pressed for withdrawal of suspension orders.

Later, the government of Karnataka prohibited the lockout illegal and asked both the management and the Union to restore normalcy in operations. The workers returned to work on April 22, 2014.

TKMEU General Secretary R Satish had said that they would continue to contest with management on issues including wages and suspension of 30 employees.

Though the company has refused to divulge details of its loss during the months of March and April, it is said to have lost production of over 2,000 units.

Toyota manufactures Innova, Fortuner at its first plant and the second plant produces Corolla Altis, Etios, Etios Liva, Camry and Camry Hybrid. It has an installed capacity of 310,000 units at both its plants. In 2013-14, Toyota sold 156,087 units, a decline of 17% over the previous fiscal.