Within rights to pay more, kept govt in loop: Company

Breaking its silence on its controversial “full and final settlement” with 30 workers who led the Manesar strike, Maruti Suzuki has said the company was within its rights to offer certain workers more than what would be due to them in a normal severance package.

It said the settlement with the 30 workers, who were under suspension and facing an inquiry, was arrived at with the concurrence of the state government. The deal was within the ambit of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, it said. The country’s largest car maker has come under the spotlight for working out a quiet settlement with union leader Sonu Gujjar and other workers by paying them Rs 16 lakh each, much more than they would have got under a normal severance package or voluntary retirement scheme.

A Maruti Suzuki spokesperson said, “The company can certainly give a settlement to an individual higher than the rules of severance based on the appropriate approval process.”

The spokesperson said the company fully respected the principles of transparency and corporate governance. “Further, if it is a settlement with the involvement of the government under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, then it is perfectly legal,” the spokesperson said. Other workers have alleged the management paid huge amounts to weaken the proposed new union. They had been left with no option but to appoint 11 new representatives and start from scratch, they said.

The move comes at a time when the company is considering putting together a severance policy to resolve such disputes. Maruti chairman R C Bhargava has said such a policy would help both sides avoid litigation.