MARUTI REOPENS MANESAR PLANT
Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday reopened its Manesar plant amid heavy security, a month after a lockout was declared due to the violence in which one senior company official was killed and 100 others injured.
Workers are standing in queue outside the factory gate to enter the plant amid heavy rain.
Haryana Police has provided 500 personnel, out of which 200 are inside the plant and 300 in areas around the facility.
Besides, the company has also formed its own special force numbering 100, which includes ex-service men.
Only 300 permanent workers will resume duty on Tuesday and the company will operate single-shift till the time the management decides to ramp up output from the plant.
The company is also said to be planning to remove 500 contract workers over their alleged involvement in the violence on 18th July in which a General Manager (HR) was killed and nearly 100 others were injured.
“About 300 workers will start work on Tuesday (August 21) and when we start, we would be producing about 150 cars per day,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargava said.
He said MSI will gradually ramp up production but did not provide a timeline for reaching full output at the plant that has an annual capacity of 5.5 lakh units.
Before the incident the plant had employees strength of 3,300 of which 1,528 are permanent.
The production which was suspended on 21st July, will restart with two popular models — DZiRE and Swift, he added. The overall loss is estimated to be over Rs 1,500 crore.
Production will resume under heavy security with Haryana Police providing 500 personnel. Besides, MSI will have its own 100 personnel apart from 40 personal security officers.
“We wanted to ensure that work can be carried out within the factory and also provide security to workers while returning home,” Bhargava said.
On the fate of the workers allegedly involved in the violence, Bhargava said: “We have already issued notices to 500 permanent workers at the plant. The number may increase depending upon the investigation and if there is a need to issue more notices, we will.”
Besides, 500 contract workers have been identified for their alleged involvement in violence and would not be taken back during new hiring to start on 2nd September, sources said.
MSI Chief Operating Officer (Administration) S Y Siddiqui said: “The investigation is an ongoing process and we cannot put a number on the contract workers that we will not take back.”
He further said it was estimated that 700-800 workers were involved in the violence on 18th July.
On total production loss, Bhargava said: “Production at Manesar varies from 1,500 units to 1,700 units per day depending on the demand.”
Talking about compensation offered to employees who were issued the notices, Siddiqui said they will be given three months salary in lieu of the notice period and “15 days of salary for every year of completed service”.
On future employment of contract workers, Bhargava said: “On the production line, we would not have contract labourers, but for the short-term and for flexibility, we may have about 20 per cent contract labourers, but they will be absorbed in due course of time.”
He said the company will start fresh recruitment of permanent workers from 2nd September and existing contract workers will also be considered.
“Those who are fit for employment, will be taken and those who we think we cannot employ (because of involvement in the violence), we will not take them back,” he said.
In order to have a strong security mechanism, MSI has created a “special force of 100 security guards, including ex-servicemen, at its Manesar plant in addition to the existing security force, to enhance security”.
This will be in addition to the state police, who will continue to provide security to the plant.
On the losses, Bhargava said the damage to the plant machineries and other properties is estimated at Rs 110 crore. Besides, the production loss is about Rs 1,400 crore.
“The average value per car, depending on the product mix, stands between Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh,” he said without sharing the actual production loss in the month-long lockout that caused a total production loss of over 20 days.
The Manesar plant, which has an annual capacity of 5.5 lakh units, rolls out the company’s popular models Swift, entry level sedan DZiRE and SX4 along with compact car A-Star.
During the period of lockout, the company did not stop booking of Swift and DZiRE. The combined pending booking orders for these models stand at 1.2 lakh units.
Giving details of safety mechanism at the troubled plant, MSI said the state government will set up a rapid action force of 500 police personnel, headed by a senior police officer near the Manesar area.
“In each shift, 100 of them will be in the Maruti Suzuki Manesar factory,” it added.
The Haryana government has also provided 40 personal security officers (PSOs) for the safety of managers, supervisors and, wherever necessary, the workers.
Security arrangements have been made at the residences of the employees, the company said.
“We believe that these measures, and the continuing efforts of the Haryana government and its police force to investigate, arrest and prosecute the criminals involved in the violence on 18th July, will create a safe environment for work to resume,” it added.
The Haryana government had earlier announced formation of a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravinder Tomar to probe violence at Manesar plant.
On 1st August, the police had arrested 10 office bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union, including its President Ram Meher and General Secretary Sarabjit Singh, taking the total number of workers arrested to 114 in relation to the incident.
On Wednesday, the police arrested the worker who allegedly manhandled the supervisor and whose subsequent suspension had triggered the violence.
Bhargava said police has so far arrested a total of 154 people in connection wtih the violence.
Last year, the company had witnessed three incidents of labour unrest at Manesar plant due to which it had suffered a loss of around Rs 2,500 crore for 83,000 units
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