The management of Bosch Ltd has reached a settlement with the employees’ union at its Naganathapura plant on the outskirts of Bangalore. The agreement was finalised Thursday night, a day after finalising a wage pact with the workers of the company’s Bangalore plant for a period of four years from January 2009.
The union Mico Karmikara Sangha-Naganathapura (MKS-N) President S Prasanna Kumar told Business Standard that the management had agreed to give a raise of Rs 8,000 per month in their CTC (cost to company). According to him, this was over twice the Rs 3,600 paid in the previous settlement four years ago. In return for this, the workers agreed to restore normal production at the plant.
As a result, the union restored today 100 per cent normalcy in production processes at the Naganathapura facility, which manufactures starter motors, spark plugs, alternators and start-stop systems, among others. The company employs 715 shop-floor workers at this facility.
According to sources, MKS-N and the management representatives agreed on the new basket amount before the additional labour commissioner at a meeting here on Thursday. The agreement with the union at the Naganathapura plant also allows for the new salary package to come into retrospective effect from January 1, 2009, and will be valid for a period of four years ending December 31, 2012. Both MKS-N and management will sign the memorandum of understanding on March 29, 2010.
In a joint press statement, MKS-N President S Prasanna Kumar and Bosch Vice-President N Umesh said: “The settlement was reached after a long, but fruitful negotiation and we have reached normalcy with effect from March 26.”
The workers at both Naganathapura and Bangalore plants of Bosch had launched a go-slow strike from February 12, 2010, demanding an increase of Rs 15,000 in their monthly salaries and medical facilities, among others. As a result of the strike at both the units, the company saw a drop of 40 per cent in production, which resulted in a loss of Rs 4 crore per day.
The settlement is now expected to give a relief to the auto industry, which had to face some disruption in production due to irregularities in the supply of critical components from the Bosch plants.