Maruti's Gurgaon union in a dilemma over joint action

New Delhi: The predominance of casual workers continues to plague Maruti Suzuki India. The company asserted on Saturday that it plans to phase out all casual workers from value-added shopfloor functions by March next year. This means no contract labour would be used on the press and paint shops and assembly lines.

But Kuldeep Singh Janghu, the Secretary General of the Maruti Suzuki Kamgaar Union - which represents workers at its Gurgaon plant - told Firstpost on Monday he has not been told about any such plans by the company. He said the Gurgaon plant employs about 9,000 people of which only 3,000 are permanent workers.

“We have been talking to the company on this issue and talks continue….but we have not been told that casual workers will be phased out by March next year…..did Mr Bhargava (Maruti Chairman) really say that?” he asks, incredulous.

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If only one in three workmen coming in to the shopfloor every day are permanent employees, it keeps the wage bill down but does it not also weaken the loyalty a worker feels towards his employer? A contract worker draws less than half, about Rs 7,000 a month, of the salary of a permanent employee who takes home about Rs 16,000. Also, the company does not have to contribute to a casual worker’s provident fund and gratuity corpus.

A story in The Economic Times talks of the company planning to increase the cash component of pay to workers under the new wage agreement being negotiated. It says at present half the salary is paid in cash but the other half is incentive-based, which depends on employee productivity and other factors.

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Bhargava had also said during last Saturday’s interaction with the media that contractors who are presently used to employing casual labour would be done away with and the company’s own human resources wing would hire labour in future, with contract workers given priority in landing permanent jobs.

During the prolonged agitation in Manesar last year, one of the persistent demands from workers was leave and emoluments of contract labour. Workers had, at that time, pointed out how even a few minutes’ delay in reporting for work could cost them half a day’s salary - even if the delay is for a loo break while working on a regular shift.

Also, there were several issues that workers had pointed out over how much leave should a regular and contract worker be allowed.

In his interaction on Saturday, Bhargava claimed all these issues had been amicably resolved with the new union at Manesar. So does Gurgaon face no labour issues at all? Janghu admitted to some pressure from his workers over joining the “cause of our brothers” at Manesar but said his union was planning no protests and there was no plan to disrupt production at Gurgaon because of what happened at Manesar.

But he, like other workers in Gurgaon and indeed the entire industrial belts of Manesar and Gurgaon, are anxiously waiting for the outcome of a mahapanchayat today and the workers’ solidarity meeting planned for Wednesday. The mahapanchayat is expected to support Maruti because it sees an end to livelihood for local youth unless the lockout at Manesar is lifted soon.

But the workers’ agitation - which is being planned by workers at nearby units, with support from political labour unions like the AITUC - is expected to express solidarity with the workers’ cause at Manesar. So Janghu and his men are likely to be pulled in different directions this week.