The company had declared lock-out on February 6 following employees resorting to strike on the back of a standoff between the labour union and management over negotiations on wage revision.
The company sent an SMS to the workers on March 6 and issued notices stating that it had decided to lift the lockout and that work would resume shortly.
It reached a deal with the labour union, following a chain of tripartite talks led by the state labour department, the management and union leaders.
All the workers joined duty on Monday.
On an average, the company produces around 100 vehicles every month at its Dharwad plant under three categories – Light Commercial Vehicles (up to 7.5-tonne buses), Intermediate Commercial Vehicles (up to 11 tonnes) and Medium Commercial Vehicles (upto 16 tonnes). Around 90 percent of the production is for the LCV and ICV segments and mainly comprise school buses.
Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI) state president R Manasayya said the workers did not have any personal grudge against the company but were staging protests saying that the lockout was illegal. Hence, there was no question of boycotting work as claimed by a few workers. The workers have already suffered as they were rendered jobless for over a month.
The Dharwad plant has a workforce of around 2,500.
Source : BS Motoring