Two-wheeler makers and suppliers face labour issue near Chennai

The manufacturing facilities of Royal Enfield, Yamaha and Myoung Shin Automotive India Pvt Ltd (MSI), a supplier of Hyundai, are facing labour problems for the last few days. Recently, workers at the Renault-Nissan facility threatened that they will be forced to look at various options including a possible strike against the management's decision for VSS. 

While emails, phone calls and messages sent to the companies spokespersons were not answered, A Soundararajan of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), who is also the President of the Unions at Yamaha, MSI and Union official from the Royal Enfield Union have confirmed the development.

At the Yamaha Motor India's Oragadam plant, around 750 permanent workers out of a total around 800 workers went on strike alleging that the company sacked a few of the employees.

Workers in the company's facility have applied to form an union, India Yamaha Motor Thozhilalar Sangam, and the workers also submitted a complaint under Section 2 K of the Labour Act. While a meeting with the Labour Commissionerate higher official was scheduled on Thursday, the management did not allow permission to the Union leaders to go for the meeting and has terminated two employees on the spot, said Kannan, a CITU union leader in the region, who is taking care of the formation of the union in the factory.

He added that the factory has a capacity of around 2200 units in two shifts a day, but with the skilled workers not cooperating, only around 200-300 units are being produced a day. There are around 2,000 contract workers and trainees, who are currently working, but they may not have the skills to complete the works at the pace at which the skilled permanent workers would be able to execute, he said.

IYM's manufacturing facilities comprise of 3 plants at Faridabad (Haryana), Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The plants cater to domestic and overseas markets. Yamaha invested around Rs 20 billion at the facility near Chennai. The Chennai plant spread across 180 acres, is the first in the Yamaha group to have a vendor park near the facility.

Soundararajan said at Royal Enfield's Oragadam factory problem started after four employees were sacked for forming union. Production loss was not known immediately since the strike started on Monday only. Earlier the company said with productivity optimisation at its Oragadam plant and a new facility at Vallam Royal Enfield's annual production capacity of about 950,000 units a year.

R Sampath, vice president of Royal Enfield Employees Union, which is part of Working People Trade Union Council (WPTUC), said that the Trade Union has been in the process of registering the company-specific union and has raised demands for wage settlement and a charter of demands. It has also served a strike notice on May 13, 2018. The Labour Department has called for a meeting with both the workers and the management and the management was not present for the meeting. A total of 6200 workers including the 740 permanent workers in Orgadam, contract workers and trainees are on strike. With this, production in the Oragadam factory is completely stopped, affecting 750 units of vehicles a day, while in Vallam where the normal production is around 600 units, around 300 units were produced today, he said.

"A majority of associate engineers are fully engaged in performing their roles; some of them did not report for work, though they were present in the facility. We have forums that address matters related to the well being of workmen and are working to understand the issue that compelled a few workmen to refrain from reporting for work today. We are hopeful of arriving at a mutually beneficial solution," Royal Enfield spokesperson said at Oragadam today.

Similarly, over 140 permanent workers of Myoung Shin Automotive India Pvt Ltd(MSI) have stuck work demanding recognition of their union and rights to demand fair wages. MSI an Indian subsidiary of Korean Manufacturer Myung Shin produces chassis and doors and is a Tier 1 supplier to Hyundai. It has been operating since 2006 in Mannur Village.

The workers are affiliated to CITU. According to Soundararajan, there are over 1300 workers in the factory out of which only 150 workers are permanent workers. All the workers are used in core production. The permanent workers are ITI trained and some have been with the company for more than 10 years.

The company signed collective wage agreements. The last wage agreement ended in 2016, after which the management posted a notice saying that there will be a wage increase of Rs 14500. However, the management did not honour this notice and there was no progress through the works committee even after over 20 negotiations! The workers, therefore, decided that forming a union is the only way to represent their collective interests.

Early this month, the employees of Renault Nissan Alliance India Ltd (RNAIL) in Oragadam, Tamil Nadu, had raised concerns about the company's announcement of Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS), fearing that they may be left to suffer if it would lead to a larger job cut.