Strike at Maruti illegal: Haryana

The Haryana government on Friday toughened its stand on the workers of Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant by declaring the strike illegal and imposing a ban on the strike by passing prohibitory orders. Police presence was also increased in and around the factory. 

In a press statement, Haryana MoS for Labour and Employment, Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, pointed out the state government had also referred the matter to the local labour court under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

The move of the state came even as the Maruti management offered the striking workers a peace proposal. The management said it was ready to “review” two of the workers’ demands if they in return agree to call off the strike and make up for the losses in production due to the seven-day strike.  Discussions between workers and the government in the morning did not fetch any solution. However, a tripartite meeting of the company, government and the workers was on late in the night to thrash out the contentious issues. 

 

The 2,500 workers who had struck work on Saturday have been demanding recognition of a new union -- Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) –independent of the existing one which is dominated by workers of the Gurgaon plant. They have also demanded that the management take back the order for termination of eleven employees who allegedly instigated the workers. The third demand is to scrap the order of ‘no work no pay’ imposed by the management.  

“We have offered the workers a solution, their first priority has to be to restore production and make up for the production loss due to the seven-day strike. After all, our vendors and our customers have got impacted,” said S Y Siddiqui, HR head of the company.  Siddiqui added that once workers do that, the company would be ready to review the two steps taken by the management —- termination of eleven employees and taking back the  ‘no pay’ order.

The strike has already lead to a loss of production of over 6,300 cars and over Rs 250 crore to the company’s bottom line, leading to fears of shortage of some models like the SX4 and  Dzire amongst others in the market .

Under the state laws, a company after declaring a ‘no work no pay’ policy can impose a penalty of eight days of a worker’s salary for every day that he is on illegal strike. Which means Maruti can cut as much as 56 days of a worker’s pay. 

Insiders, however, say the main bone of contention is that the Maruti management has been clearly against allowing any union in the company to be affiliated or backed by a political party to make an entry.  

The CPI affiliated All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc), which has seen its clout grow in the Gurgaon -Manesar- Bawal auto hub, has been backing auto unions across the area and has recently succeeded in playing a key role in negotiating wages in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters Ltd during a strike and have a union affiliated under them. But the real test case is getting a foothold in Maruti Suzuki, which is the largest car manufacturers in the country and also the largest auto company in this area. It has over 125 tier-I vendors besides the smaller vendors supporting the company in the same area.

Control over the auto hub is crucial for any union as 60 per cent of the country’s auto production comes from this area and as much as 80 per cent of the workers are on contract, offering unions an opportunity to intervene.  Aituc has over 25,000 active worker members in the area.

Those close to the negotiations say that the proposed constitution of the new union has a clause under which one-third of its members can be from outside the factory, which is clearly not acceptable to the Maruti Suzuki management.  “Aituc has entered into company unions through this method. Maruti is not against an independent union which has a similar constitution as the existing one. However it will not allow political parties to get in and would prefer a lockout,” says a source close to the negotiations. The proposed union also does not have a clause like the current union in its constitution which promises that it will not be affiliated to any political party.

Meanwhile, representative of the Aituc on Friday met Haryana’s chief minister Bhupender Singh Hooda asking him to intervene in order to end the strike.  Said D L Sachedva, general-secretary of Aituc: “The CM has assured us that he would talk to the management and the labour department and the matter should come to an amicable end by tomorrow.”   He however warned that any police action against the striking workers would be met with further industrial action by workers and unions in other factories in the auto belt.

Aituc yesterday said it was planning, with the support of other unions, to go in for a full-day strike in over 50 auto companies in the adjoining area if the Maruti management does not resolve the crises.