Repeated strikes could hurt investments in India: Bosch

German auto components giant Bosch, which has faced many instances of labour unrest at its different plants in India, today cautioned that such repeated incidents would impact investments.
The company, which is facing strike at its Bangalore plant, and had faced labour unrest at Jaipur plant, also said that such stirs could hurt India's competitiveness.
"Today's situation leads to low productivity, impacting competitiveness of our plants. Our intention is to continue (investments) provided labour conditions let us be competitive," Bosch Group Chairman of the Board of Management Volkmar Denner told reporters here.
He further said: "Today in the world there are many free trade zones and they will increase. That means a country like India has to be competitive with other countries, especially in Asia."

Denner, who is on his maiden visit to the country as the Chairman of the Board, was replying to queries related to the ongoing strike at the company's Bangalore plant. The workers of the Adugodi plant near Bangalore are on an indefinite strike from September 16, demanding resolution of issues which are long pending.
"We will keep investing in India but as I said with respect to manufacturing everything rests on competitiveness as Bosch generally has international manufacturing network so every location has to be competitive," Denner said.

He added that labour reforms would enable the company to be competitive in India.

When asked about the strike at the Bangalore facility, he said: "Traditionally Bosch has very close and very good relations with the employees. The current situation at Bangalore is a concern for us. Taking into account that Bosch pays wages and benefits that belong to upper band of wage standards, our expectation is that we will find an amicable solution soon."
Elaborating further, he said: "In Germany also we have strong unions and of course there are conflicting positions... This is very natural and needs to be accepted by both parties but it is always, i think, with the common understanding that we have to reach common solutions. And second, the solution has to be such the company can still be competitive," Denner said.