Maruti Suzuki India will lift the month-long lockout at itsviolence-hit Manesar plant and resume operations on August 21, the company saidtoday.
The country's largest carmaker has also issued terminationnotices to 500 regular workers, who were allegedly involved in the July 18violence in which one senior executive was killed and nearly 100 others wereinjured.
"We plan to lift the lockout from August 21 and resumeproduction at Manesar," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargavatold reporters here.
Maruti Suzuki India had declared a lockout at the Manesarplant on July 21, stating the safety and wellbeing of its employees wereparamount to the company.
The Manesar unit is at present guarded by the HaryanaPolice. The Police had last week said it would continue to provide security andstation a full battalion, comprising 500-600 policemen, inside the facilitywhere some of the popular car models were made.
On the fate of workers involved in the violence, Bhargavasaid: "We have issued termination notices to 500 regular workers."
The plant, while on full operations before the violence,employed around 3,000 workers, of which around 1,600 were permanent employees.Besides, about 700 managerial people were also working at the plant.
The Manesar plant, which has an annual capacity of 5.5 lakhunits, rolls out the company's popular models Swift, entry level sedan DZiREand SX4 along with compact car A-Star.
The Haryana government had announced formation of a specialinvestigation team (SIT) headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police RavinderTomar to probe violence at Manesar plant.
On August 1, the police had arrested 10 office bearers ofthe Maruti Suzuki Workers' Union, including its President Ram Meher and GeneralSecretary Sarabjit Singh, taking the total number of workers arrested to 114 inrelation to the incident.
Last year the company had witnessed three incidents oflabour unrest at Manesar plant due to which it had suffered a loss of around Rs2,500 crore for 83,000 units.