MRF's Tiruvottiyur unit to reopen today

Facility was closed for a month over a dispute.

MRF's Tiruvottiyur factory, which has been shut for a month now over a productivity dispute, will be reopened on Tuesday, a company executive said today.

This decision was conveyed to the state government by Chairman K M Mammen Mappillai, who met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday. The company chief assured the chief minister that the month-old lockout would be lifted today.

Koshy Verghese, executive vice president - marketing, said the factory would be reopened on Tuesday morning. The plant has been closed since December 3, 2007.

According to sources in the workers' union, the factory would be back to full production after maintenance work is completed within a few days. The Tiruvottiyur unit is one of MRF's oldest plants and employs about 1,600 people, some of them on contract.

The government said in a statement today that the dispute between the management and workers at the unit would be settled through negotiations which will be co-ordinated by state Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy and Labour Minister T M Anbarasan.

Repeated efforts by the state labour commissioner to resolve the dispute were unsuccessful and the state government issued an order on December 20, 2007 directing that the lockout be lifted soon. But the company management challenged the order before the high court.

Answering questions from members in the state legislative assembly last week, minister Veerasamy urged the MRF management to resolve the issue in a week and warned that if a solution was not found the state chief minister would have to intervene. He also mentioned that if the chief minister's efforts did not resolve the impasse, the government would take over the unit.

The lockout at Tiruvottiyur has affected the company's topline for the December quarter. MRF posted a nine per cent growth in net sales at Rs 1,155.57 crore, against Rs 1,057.83 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006. Tiruvottiyur accounts for 10 per cent of MRF's turnover.