Maruti defends Manesar sackings, says it has 'proof' against workers

New Delhi: Unions in Gurgaon have branded as “unjust” the dismissal of 500-odd workers of Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant following last month’s violence at India’s largest car manufacturer’s unit in the industrial belt, but the company says it followed due process of an investigation and had evidence against the sacked workers.

“The company terminated the employment of 500-odd workers based on an extensive internal investigation by, among others, a team from Maruti, lawyers and special prosecutors, who worked in coordination with the police,” a senior management official at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd told _Firstpost. “_It is untrue to say that there was no investigation before the workers were sacked,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity since police investigations are still under way.

The violent incidents at the factory occurred on 18 July, and the dismissals took place nearly a month later, on 16 August, the official noted. In that time, Maruti, with the guidance and in the presence of a lawyer, spoke to all the injured people and all the people present at the factory on the day. “We spoke to all others present and recorded their statements. For every single person dismissed , there were witnesses who testified against them,” the official added.

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[caption id=“attachment_433569” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The violent incidents at the factory occurred on 18 July, and the dismissals took place nearly a month later, on 16 August. AP[/caption]

Chairman of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, Osamu Suzuki, on Thursday held a 50-minute meeting with the company’s Gurgaon plant union leaders, and visited the Manesar facility on Monday. He patiently listened to workers’ demands for a wage increase and their other problems; yet, he condemned the violence at Manesar as "criminal", indicating that the sacked workers would not be reinstated .

On 21 August, even as production resumed at the violence-hit plant, Maruti India Chairman RC Bhargava had flagged the risk that dismissed workers would influence others to strike , and said the company should be prepared to face further protest from its staff.

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The company, however, remains firm on its decision to take strict action against the guilty.

“As and when we have more evidence against more people, we will not hesitate to dismiss them,” the Maruti official told Firstpost. Asked if the company would make the investigations public, he said that Maruti could not do that for now in the light of the ongoing investigations along with the police.

Other unions in Gurgaon are in solidarity with Maruti’s Manesar workers. They claim that that the crux of Maruti's labour problems is inequitable wages , but the management refuted the allegation, and says they are being raked up as an indefensible excuse for the factory violence.

“Issues like wages and working conditions are completely irrelevant in the case of the violence and arson last month,” the senior manager at Maruti Suzuki told Firstpost. “These issues were relevant last year when there had been strikes, but since then, all these issues had been addressed - and were continuing to be addressed.” The July 18 violence was unrelated to wage grievance, he added.

Unions in Gurgaon say that the local administration and the company management are trying to portray a negative picture about unions and are unwilling to address the “root cause” of the crisis, but again the management refuted the charge.

“New issues crop up once in a while, and when they do , they are addressed,” the official added. The workers have demanded low-cost housing, which the management had taken up with the Haryana government.

“We’ve told them about the kind of land needed and sought permission to build high-rises so that workers can benefit from reasonably priced houses,” the official said. “We’ve also helped form a workers’ cooperatives to provide affordable loans,” he added.

Yet, despite these positive moves, a section of the workers had vitiated the atmosphere by resorting to violence, the official noted.

The company also said that it is willing to consider directly recruiting workers who were formerly contract employees. In the fresh recruitment of workers to begin on 2 September, existing contract workers will also be considered. They will need to go through a screening process and take an eligibility test and can then be considered for temporary recruitment directly by Maruti, as opposed to being hired for the company by a contractor. Former contract workers, if eligible, may also apply through the new regular recruitment process, under which they will have to take a written exam, a skill test, sit for interviews, and be subjected to a scrutiny of their educational qualification.

“What often happens is that people who have not completed their education come as contract workers,” the official said. “But if a former contract worker is eligible, he can apply through both processes, that of a temporary worker directly recruited by the company or a new regular employee.”

Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant saw mob violence and large scale vandalism of the company's property on July 18 , in which Awanish Kumar Dev, Maruti’s General Manager (HR) was burned to death and over 100 others were injured.

On August 16, the company suspended over 500 workers for their alleged role in the violence at the plant last month and on August 21 it restarted the Manesar plant’s operations amid heavy security . The plant – which suffered damages of almost Rs 10 crore, with the total production loss being estimated at about Rs 1,400 crore in last month’s violence – produces the company’s bestselling Swift, the A-Star and SX4 models.

As of August 27, the company had approximately 1,20,000 cars in the waiting list. The company lost over Rs 2,500 crore in revenue last year due to prolonged labour strife in June, August and October of 2011.