Honda Manesar plant employees protest 2,500 contractual workers' sacking

Workers of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India's (HMSI) Manesar plant on Wednesday took out a march to protest against the sacking of 2,500 contractual workers at the facility.

The workers marched from the plant to Gurugram Mini Secretariat.

A worker union leader claimed that around 5,000 workers participated in the protest.

The Japanese two-wheeler major had resumed operations at the plant earlier this week with permanent employees joining work.

HMSI had suspended operations at the plant from first week of November as workers protested for over a week against the retrenchment of their contractual colleagues.

The stand off at the facility, which employs around 1,900 permanent workers and 2,500 contract workers, began on morning of November 5 when the company management did not allow some of the contractual workers to go inside the plant.

The sacked contractual workers, though, continue to protest at the site.

"Around 5,000 workers participated in the protest march today. Workers from other factories also joined us in the protest," a senior HMSI worker and union leader told PTI.

The workers handed over a memorandum to the government officials at the Secretariat and sought their help in reinstating sacked contractual workers, he added.

The worker union also demanded revocation of suspension of six of their members.

The workers under the Trade Union Council also demanded that the government should look into problems of other manufacturing units in Manesar/Gurugram region.

On November 22, HMSI workers had taken out a protest march from Manesar plant to Gurugram Deputy Commissioner's office.

When contacted, HMSI said over 1,350 permanent staff associates have joined back duty as on November 27 and the last batch is expected to join on November 28.

"We are steadily moving towards regular operations with discipline, good faith and positivity," the company said in a statement.

The decision to resume production at Manesar plant was initiated on November 22 and all permanent staff associates were informed to join duty from November 25 to November 28 in four batches.

The HMSI Employee Union leaders had alleged that the company had reduced production by 50 per cent at the Manesar facility and is in the process of retrenching contractual workers.

The plant has three assembly lines -- two for motorcycles and one for scooters.