Workers at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s (MSIL’s) Manesar plant broke the ice with the management on Friday accepting a fifth draft of the ‘good conduct bond’, with some changes. The workers have accepted they will maintain discipline and not sabotage operations.
The management has assured it will not act with vengeance against the protesting workers and this too will be incorporated in the bond.
The workers have softened their stand that the company must take back the 62 dismissed or suspended workers. They have agreed the 33 dismissed workers can be put on suspension while the rest, with no serious charges against them, can be inducted. Last Sunday, the workers had expressed readiness to sign the bond but demanded the language be altered. They wanted all the 62 workers inducted. MSIL had rejected both demands.
Haryana labour minister Shiv Charan Lal Sharma said, “We are hoping a solution will emerge by Sunday.”
| WHAT THEY AGREED TO * Workers agree to maintain discipline and not sabotage operations * Only 33 workers to be dismissed * Management assures not to act with vengeance against the protesting workers |
Shiv Kumar, general secretary of the unrecognised Maruti Suzuki Employees Union which represents the Manesar workers, said, “The company and the workers reached a consensus on a proposed new good conduct bond and the company has assured us it will not act with vengeance.
“If a settlement is not reached in the next one or two days, then the Maruti management would be responsible for the consequences,” he said.
Kuldeep Janghua, president, Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU), the only recognised union of the company, said an agreement was close to being worked out in one or two days. The management was, however, more cautious.
A senior MSIL executive said, “We are negotiating with representatives of the elected union. The workers at Manesar had agreed to sign the good conduct bond without any moderation in the way the document was worded on Sunday. But, the talks collapsed. Since then, there has been no substantial development.”
The workers had declined to attend a meeting called by the deputy commissioner of Gurgaon, P C Meena, on Friday. Instead, the company management and representatives of MUKU held talks independently at the company’s Gurgaon facility. MSIL on Friday produced 670 units of the new Swift at its Manesar and Gurgaon plants. It is now considering starting operations to roll out hatchback A-Star and sedan SX4 in three-four days.
