Pal Chief Blames Samant For Unrest At Kurla Plant

In a letter sent to all the shareholders, Doshi has made attempts to apprise them of the current labour situation at the company's Kurla plant. Apparently, the effort is to stem unsavoury scenes at the company's AGM scheduled on October 7.

In his letter dated August 12, Doshi has stated that Samant has not adhered to the state labour commissioner's advice. The minister in a joint meeting on June 1, 1996, convinced Samant the need for increasing the production to 80 diesel cars.He was also informed of the negotiation plans by the management with the union on incentives and other demands. At the meeting, both Samant and the management accepted the advice of the minister. However, the next day Samant told the laboures to continue producing only 50 diesel cars per day, Doshi states.

In his letter, Doshi maintains that the company continues to give the guaranteed incentives for 40 cars per day as done in the past. The management, according to him, pays incentive to the workers even if the daily production is below 40 cars.

This was agreed by the company at the time when the industry, especially the passenger car segment was going through a severe recessionary period in 1992-93.

With the increase in the strength of workmen the company is producing 10 to 15 cars each of Uno and the Padmini diesel every day.

Due to Samant's difference with management over a safety issue at the Kalyan plant of PAL-Peugeot (PPL), the supply of sheet metal parts and other services by PPL to PAL's Kurla plant was severely affected in March 1996."-->