The Machiavellian masterstroke was delivered early last week following four months of worker strife.
Instead of dismissing 30 worker-leaders, who were “known trouble makers”, Maruti Suzuki made an offer they couldn’t refuse: it allowed the leaders to resign after an internal inquiry and agreed to pay top up cash, apart from normal dues for the period they were in service.
India’s largest carmaker wasn’t alone in this. There was a gentle nudge from the Haryana government and then, there was also the realisation that the dismissed workers would find it impossible to secure employment in future in the Gurgaon-Manesar auto belt.
So the strategy was, proffer an irresistible dolly, take out the leaders from the equation and scupper the pestilent agitation. It was a labour-relations masterstroke.
In the process, while the state government got to keep its votebank intact, Maruti got rid of the trouble makers by paying about Rs.5 lakh to each worker over and above the wages.
Workers who resigned included agitation leader Sonu Gujjar, who is now being seen as a traitor by colleagues. He would have been a martyr had he been dismissed by Maruti.
For months, there was uncertainty in the company managementon how to deal with the prolonged and well-publicised strike, which led to production loss of about 85,000 cars and a sales loss of Rs.2,500 crore. Sources said there were many instances during negotiations when there seemed no end in sight and spirits flagged.
Maruti’s dogged attempt to keep production going at any cost — even by hiring on-the-spot — was a sore point for much of the strike period. At one point, the company hired about a 1,000 new workers to continue making cars and this scared the permanent workers who were losing their salaries for the strike period. Then, the decision later on to introduce a ‘good conduct bond’ for workers also worsened the situation.
Early on in the strike, the Left-affiliated unions (CITU) and even AITUC began inciting workers. The BJP-affiliated HMS also joined forces later on, making resolution of this conflict difficult. To make matters worse, the state was by then blowing hot and cold, keeping a watch over workers’ rights amid impending elections in Hissar even as it tried to resolve matters to help the Maruti management.
Sources said the last agreement between striking workers and the management, which was signed late October, finally showed some maturity.
“Earlier, each time the two sides signed an agreement, they felt they had gained an upper hand. But the issues would remain largely unresolved. This time, not only did the worker-leaders get an honourable exit, the forming of grievance redressal and labour welfare committees also bode well for industrial relations within Maruti in future.”
Trouble began on June 3, when workers went on strike demanding a union. Maruti was opposed to the idea and the 13-day impasse ended only when Haryana chief minister B S Hooda ensured that the company took back 11 dismissed workers when they promised not to renew demand for a union.
Comments