Into the 16th day of their “tool down” strike, the Bosch Limited’s labour union called it off today after the Karnataka government prohibited the strike with immediate effect.
The technology-based corporation said the agitation ended after the Mico Employees’ Association (MEA) submitted an unconditional letter to the management to end it. The association said the work would resume from the first shift tomorrow morning. All the 4,000 employees, who were striking work, have agreed to return to regular work, according to MEA vice-president C Hanumantha.
“We agreed to call off the strike after the labour department (of the state government) agreed to refer the matter to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal for adjudication. The matter will now have to be solved within six months,” Hanumantha told Business Standard. “We are happy with the government’s order as we had earlier also demanded such adjudication. But, the management had not given its consent. Now, they have no choice but to accept government order.”
Bosch said in a statement that its management welcomed the calling off of the strike after a series of deliberations. It “stood firm” by the decision of outsourcing, a 20-year-old practice, in the “interest” of the organisation and customers. “It is a normal process in any dispute that the matter will be referred to the Tribunal for resolution,” a company spokesperson said.
The management said it was looking forward to MEA’s cooperation in such “significant decisions that are imperative for Bosch to stay competitive in the market and meet its commitment to valued customers”.
It was on September 28 that the MEA declared a “tool down” strike at Bosch’s main factory at Audugodi in Bangalore in protest against the company’s policy of outsourcing certain type of work and removal of machineries from the production line.
However, the company will continue to outsource certain work in order to remain competitive in the business, the spokesperson added.
The company said the ongoing strike has resulted in a loss of Rs 60 lakh to the state exchequer and over Rs 4 crore to the Central exchequer over the last one week. This was besides a loss of average production worth Rs 80 crore.
The MEA members had argued that there was no mention of any outsourcing plans of the company in the wage settlement between the management and association signed on October 25 last year, which is in force for a period of four years, ending December 31, 2012.
