Nearly 3,100 employees at the company’s main plant are on a go-slow strike.
The management of Bosch Ltd today informed its employees at the main component factory in Bangalore, who are on a go-slow strike, that it may declare a lockout there, if the workers don’t restore normalcy. The company has already declared a lockout at its other plant in Naganathapura, on the outskirts of Bangalore, with effect from March 9.
Nearly 3,100 employees at the company’s main plant in Bangalore are also on a go-slow strike, in addition to the 715 employees at the Naganathapura plant, which has been locked out since the past two days. As a result of the strike at both units, the company had a 40 per cent drop in production and losses have crossed the Rs 120-crore mark.
| LABOUR LAMENTS |
| * 3,800 employees go on strike |
| * 40% drop in production, losses over Rs 120 crore |
| * Go-slow strike at two units results in loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the automobile industry |
“The company is constrained to consider a lockout even in our Bangalore plant. We have given a notice in the form of information to our employees. If certain conditions are not met and normalcy is not restored, we will declare a lockout any time,” Soumitra Bhattacharya, senior vice-president, Bosch Limited, said at a press conference and declined to take any questions.
The workers at both Naganathapura and Bangalore plants of Bosch had launched a go-slow strike from February 12, demanding a Rs 15,000 rise in their salaries per month and medical facilities, among others.
“In addition to our losses, the automobile industry has lost close to Rs 1,000 crore in combined turnover,” Bhattacharya told reporters here on Thursday. Bosch has been losing a turnover of Rs 1 crore at Naganathapura and Rs 3 crore at the Bangalore plant per day.
Original equipment manufacturer customers include Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Ford, Force Motors, Ashok Leyland, Kirloskar, Hyundai, TVS, among others, that are dependent on supply from Bosch. The company’s aftermarket in India and abroad, and exports are also affected due to the strike at Naganathapura and Bangalore plants. The company currently exports about 15 per cent of its total turnover. Both the plants in Bangalore contribute to 55 per cent of the company’s total turnover.
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Bosch reported a 4.3 per cent rise in net sales at Rs 4,822 crore for the year ended December 2009 compared with the previous year.
Bhattacharya said the company was willing to lift the lockout at Naganathapura, provided the employees restored normal production levels and agreed to management conditions, which included increase in production efficiency.
S Prasanna Kumar, secretary, Mico Karmikara Sangha, Naganathapura, said, “We are ready to return to work, provided the management accepts our demand of at least Rs 4,500 per month interim basket amount. We are also ready to increase the production efficiency by 25 per cent.”
The management, instead, has offered to pay an interim amount of Rs 3,000 per month and insisted on raising the production efficiency by 50 per cent, before lifting the lockout.
Kumar said the lockout was enforced illegally by the management without giving a statutory notice of 10 days. He also demanded that the management should not resort to production using managerial staff, because they may damage the machines.
Meanwhile, the labour commissioner has advised the management to lift the lockout and facilitate the negotiation with the employees.
“Flexibility in working, according to production norms, is a very fair and normal demand in our opinion. The management has proposed improvement in productivity and a reasonable basket amount, and not a Rs 15,000 hike as demanded by the workers. This will keep the company competitive in the mid and long term,” Bhattacharya said.
The company has 715 permanent employees in Naganathapura and 2,400 in the Bangalore plant. The company also has 70 temporary staff in Naganathapura and 700 in Bangalore.
Bosch’s stock closed at Rs 4,728.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, down 0.67 per cent.