Workers at Hero's Haridwar plant on stir, production affected

  Production at two-wheeler mak Production at two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp's plant here has been affected with workers going on a tool-down agitation against the suspension of two colleagues.

While the workers claim that production at the plant has come to a complete halt, the management insists the impact is very insignificant.

"The management has suspended two workers, one earlier this month and another on August 29 without proper reason and we are demanding their reinstatement," Krishnanand Bhatt, a technician at the plant, told PTI. "We are not working till they are taken back."

He said production has come to a halt as none of the workers is ready to work till the demands are met.

The management disputed the claims of the workers. A company spokesperson said: "The plant continued to operate on Friday and the impact on production was very insignificant."

Stating that Saturday is an off-day at the plant, the spokesperson said: "We are confident of a very quick resolution of the matter."

On Friday, a worker was served a show-cause notice for misrepresenting facts while applying for employment at the plant, in violation of the model standing orders and policies laid down by the company, he added.

"Thereafter, a handful of misguided workers at the plant abstained from work in protest against the issuance of this disciplinary show-cause notice to the worker," the spokesperson said.

The plant here is the company's biggest, with a daily capacity of about 8,500 units, and manufactures models including the popular Splendor, Passion and Glamour. It employs about 4,000 workers.

Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest two-wheeler maker, has two other plants, at Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana, each with a capacity to roll out around 6,500 two-wheelers a day.

In April, a three-year wage settlement agreement was reached with workers at the Gurgaon plant. The wage talks had remained inconclusive for almost seven months and the workers had even threatened to go on strike.