 "Shekar Viswanathan")
The standoff betweene workers and management of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd has been on for three weeks. While the workers have refused to sign a good conduct undertaking, the management is adamant on their doing so. Shekar Viswanathan, vice-chairman and wholetime director, talks on the issue to Mahesh Kulkarni. Edited excerpts:
How long can the company continue to face the uncertainty?
I hope it gets resolved quickly. We are not going to victimise our workers but they will have to take a decision and come back to work after signing the good conduct undertaking.
You said the workers and the management had mutually agreed on a salary hike of Rs 3,100 a month. What is preventing the workers from signing the undertaking?
I have no idea. I believe what is holding them back is suspension of 30 workers. They are unnecessarily dragging the issue.
Why are you insisting on their signing an individual undertaking?
We believe individual employees must take responsibility for their actions. There are many of them ready to sign. Even on an earlier occasion, when we had a similar situation eight years ago, we had taken an undertaking.
There was no problem at the time and this time, too, they should come forward to sign. This is an undertaking that is typically issued before anybody comes into the factory. Particularly, when we have had incidents of an unacceptable nature, prior to our imposing lockout.
It is only fair and proper that the management insists on signing.
I also have supervisory staff on the shop floor, whose interest I must protect.
Taking everything into account, we have requested for a good conduct undertaking.
There is nothing hostile in the undertaking that will harm the interests of the team members. I believe they will sign.
The workers are on a hunger strike. Why is the state government is not coming forward to resolve the issue?
The law of the land will have to play its role. I think the state government is doing its bit. They have to be given time to play their role.
What is your current production capacity and how much is done with supervisory staff on the job?
Our capacity is 700 cars a day and since the lockout was lifted, our production has dropped by 50 per cent on a daily basis, as the workers have not returned to work.
We are managing to produce a limited number with the help of supervisory staff, contract workers and apprentices.
They are not engaged in mainline production.
As a result of the crisis, we have lost sales of 10,000 vehicles in the month of March. We sold only 9,160 cars in March as against 19,000 in the same month last year.
Your dealers are apparently running out of stock and don't even have display vehicles to showcase.
I am not going to answer this question. The dealers have enough vehicles.
We have been supplying vehicles to our dealers to cater to our customers who have been waiting for long.
Your sales are getting affected. How long can you sustain the current crisis situation. What is the remedy for this?
Yes, our sales are getting affected. I really don't know, how long the situation will continue. But, I am confident that we will find the solution.
The next course of action is with the employees. From our end, we have nothing more to say at this stage.
What is your next course of action?
I don't know. We will wait and see. I am confident the workers will eventually come to work. We don't have any official communication from the Union on their hunger strike.
We came to know from their banners. We have been having discussions with the labour department on the situation. The department is also trying to find a solution. We are managing the situation and giving the deliveries to our dealers to suit the requirements of our customers. The waiting period is going to get longer for the customers and we will supply on a first come, first serve basis.
