The Pune-based two wheeler major will be incurring an additional burden of Rs10 crore with the signing of the new agreement, sources said.
Under the new agreement, average wages of the 4,300 workers will go up by Rs 1,400 per month. The company will have to bear an additional Rs 70 per worker towards the pension fund. The Waluj plant had witnessed labour trouble early this year after the expiry of the last wage agreement. Consequently, the final assembly department of the motorcycles and moped divisions suffered production losses due to the closure of the plant for 40 days.
Bajaj Auto is the country's largest two and three-wheeler manufacturer, and the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. During 1995-96, the company sold 13,01,174 vehicles compared with 11,35,640 vehicles in the previous year. In the case of three-wheelers the company produced 1,50,969 vehicles as against 1,21.227 last year.
Bajaj Auto is the only Indian company offering both two and four stroke motorcycles. In this segment, it enjoys a 30.51 per cent market share. In the scooterette segment the company has a 57 per cent market share. Bajaj Auto has set a target of selling 1.7 million vehicles in 1996-97.
The wage agreement of the company's Pune plant expires on March 1997.