Nearly a month after its Manesar plant was rocked by labour unrest, Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday decided to take strict action against workers responsible for the violence that resulted in the death of a general manager and left around 100 officials. The company also decided to lift the lockout at the plant from August 21.
Announcing this here, Chairman R C Bhargava said, “Of the 1,500-odd regular workers, we have issued notices dispensing with their services to 500-odd so far.”
Assuring safety of the employees, Bhargava said with the help of the Haryana Government, the company has also taken several steps to ensure the security of not only the plant but also of the employees working there. In a three-pronged strategy, a Rapid Action Force consisting of 500 police personnel will be posted in the area with 200 of them on the Manesar factory.
Besides, 40 personal security officers have been provided for the safety of managers, supervisors, and of the workers. Security arrangements have also been made at the residences of the employees.
The company has also created a special force of 100 security guards, including ex-servicemen, at its Manesar Plant in addition to the existing security force, to enhance security.
The company’s most selling cars the Swift hatchback and DZire compact sedan are manufactured at the Manesar facility.
The company incurred daily losses of `60-70 crore a day because of the Manesar plant closure. With the lifting of lockout, Maruti will partially resume production at the plant.
To prevent any future labour unrest, the company has already decided not to hire contract workers. It has started the process of directly hiring them.