Tata Motors signs wage pact with Sanand workers

Tata Motors on Friday signed a long-term wage settlement (LTWS) with its Sanand workers' union, concluding over one and a half years of negotiations.

The pact is broadly in line with the three-year wage settlement signed earlier this year with Pune Workers' Union (from September 2015 to August 2018) where a portion of workers' salaries is linked to their performance.

The settlement would be for five years, October 2015 to September 2020. The company said the LTWS has been agreed upon amicably.

Under the pact, each permanent employee gets Rs 16,000 annual hike, which will be paid uniformly over a period of five years starting 2015. The hike comprises of basic component, 40 per cent, and allowances, remaining 60 per cent.

"In addition to the amount, the company has introduced a performance-linked payment, which is accounted as 10 per cent of total salary and will be linked to productivity, quality and safety," the company said.

Tata claimed the new measurement of performance has been well-received by workers. The annual bonus linked to performance covering all permanent workers was also agreed upon.

Additionally, other benefits like transport, canteen facilities, rationalisation of leave rules and block closure days up to 24 days per year were agreed upon.

Gajendra Pal Singh Chandel, chief human resource officer, Tata Motors, said, “We have strived to resolve the LTWS issue and today are delighted to have resolved the matter for a long term, ensuring our business operations’ competitiveness on one hand and taking care of the well-being of our shop-floor colleagues on the other. I would like to thank all the workers for their incessant support. They have been very co-operative and have supported the company at all times. Moreover, the union, which has been recently formed, is very supportive in ensuring workmen derive maximum benefits through this wage settlement.”

Workers had been negotiating the terms of the wage settlement for more than one and a half years now. Recently, they had boycotted meals from the plant canteen as a mark of protest against the delay in implementation.

Hitesh Rabari, president of Bharatiya Kamdar Ekta Sangh, Sanand, a labour department-recognised union at the Tata plant, said the workers were indeed happy with the settlement. "It is an environment of celebration here at the plant. Everyone is happy with the settlement. We would be receiving dues for 18 months around October," he added.