Bajaj auto union firm on demands

Undeterred by the management's veiled threat of acting tough, Bajaj Auto employees union today said it will go ahead with strike plans if its demands, including allocation of CSR funds for education of the children of employees, are not met.
"We are firm on our demands. We are not asking anything unreasonable but what is due to employees. And if these rights are denied to us, we will stop work from April 28," Bajaj Auto union Vishwa Kamgarkalyan Sangatahan President Dilip Pawar said here.
Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto said it has received a notice from its employee union for stoppage of work from April 28 at its Chakan plant.

The company has received a notice from workmen's union of its Chakan plant, Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana, stating that they propose to call for a stoppage of work by all the workmen employed in Chakan plant from the morning shift of April 28, Bajaj Auto said in a filing to the BSE.
"The notice mentions that the stoppage is not a strike," it added.
Terming the union's demands as "insane," Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajeev Bajaj had yesterday said: "We will be certain not to repeat that error while taking all possible measures to ensure the safety of the majority of our colleagues who wish to continue to work."

The Chakan plant union had on April 14 served a notice to the Bajaj management with a list of demands and threatened to stop production if the management did not oblige within the stipulated time.

Demands include allocation of CSR funds for tribal development and setting up of a museum in the name of company's founder Jamnalal Bajaj within a year.
The union has also renewed its demand of allotment of shares at a discounted rate, leading to a 50-day strike at the Chakan plant recently which was called off later unconditionally.
Pawar alleged that lack of communication from the top level was the reason for the frequent labour unrest at the Chakan plant.

"When Rahul Bajaj was at the helm, he himself took interest in resolving employees' issues. But ever since the change of guard has taken place, the top management has left all these issues to the middle management, which fails to convey our demands in right perspective," Pawar said.
However, the company has rubbished all the demands and said it would ensure that production is not hit if the union makes any attempt to disrupt it.
The Chakan plant employs over 2,000 workers, including around 900 permanent ones, and produces 1.2 million units of bikes including the Pulsar, Avenger, Ninja and the KTM brands a year.