Maruti declared lockout of their crucial Manesar manufacturing unit on 21st July due to the incident that took place on 18th of July causing death of the senior HR manager. Swift and Dzire went out of stock in few days and the backlog surge past 1.2 lakh units. Maruti incurred a loss of Rs. 75 Crore per day during lockout, and it took almost a month for Maruti to investigate and sort out the issue. The management wants to take a strong action this time and ensure safety of their staff. After many arrests, improvement in security measures and assurance from State Government, Maruti is now ready to start its operations at Manesar unit in a phased manner from Tuesday, 21st August 2012. This is some good news for the automobile industry and especially for those who have booked their Swift or Dzire and are eager to get behind the wheels.
Situation of labor unrest at Maruti has occurred many times in history, last year it had caused major financial damage and this year it took one life while injuring hundred others. Excessive work load and stringent time management is cause of stress for the workers of Maruti and at the same time increasing and uncertain demand is the cause of stress for management of Maruti. Last year after prolonged production stoppage, some actions were taken which felt short and caused last month’s tragedy. This made management to think wisely and thoroughly this time.
Following actions will be taken by Maruti Suzuki –
– Around 500 workers will be suspended including the 154 workers already arrested. Also new recruitment process will start from 2nd September, which will include absorbing contract labor too.
– Amount of contract labor will now be reduced to 20% from the current 45%.
– State Govt. will provide 200 Rapid Action Force personnel, who will be deployed in MSIL premises and 300 more will take care of the whole industrial area.
– Maruti Suzuki management themselves will hire 100 security guards out of which 40 will be armed.
Such action will increase confidence in their staff working on the shop floor. With this, production will resume at lower output. Only 150 cars/day, Swift and DZire combined, will be produced as compared to 1500-1700/day. Production will increase in phased manner. We hope all these measures will ensure that such incident will never happen in future under any circumstances.
