Motor Industries Co Ltd on Thursday said that it would consider the option of a lockout at its oldest plant in Bangalore.
BANGALORE: Motor Industries Co Ltd (Mico) on Thursday said that it would consider the option of a lockout at its oldest plant in Bangalore, if its employees association went ahead with the proposed strike on May 16.
The Mico employees association gave a notice of strike after talks failed with the management on regularisation of 540 temporary workmen and removal of inter-plant disparity in benefit and incentive rates and on the issue of customary gift to employees.
“Mico employees association, representing workmen of the Bangalore plant, on May 9 gave notice of strike effective from May 16. The management has replied to it by serving notice of lock-out, if need be,” the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The Karnataka labour department has called for tripartite talks with the employees association, affiliated to the left run CITU, and the management on Friday.
“We are in dialogue with the union and the management. We hope to resolve the issues soon,” a labour department official said.
The company said the management has requested the employees association to withdraw notice of strike and resolve the issues mutually through discussion. The labour appellate tribunal is also hearing a case on the issue.
“The 540 workers have put in an average of four years at Mico. The management had promised in April to make 59 people permanent. We want most of the temporary workers to be absorbed to fill in the gap of about 1,080 workers who have retired from the factory so far,” CITU Karnataka unit general secretary V J K Nair said.
He said the workers would go ahead with the strike if talks with the management fail. Mico has four plants - Adugodi, Naganathapura in Bangalore, Nashik and Jaipur. The dispute is over higher incentives to workers for increased productivity in the Nashik plant as comparable with the Bangalore plant.
The dissent by the employees was brewing for some time, when workers first withdrew their strike notice in November last after assurances from the Mico management, Nair said.
Mico is the largest Indo-German venture in the country. In January, labour trouble had hit production after a lockout at the Toyota Kirloskar Motors Ltd plant at Bidadi, on the city outskirts, but was soon resolved after workers agreed to resume talks with a rider of good conduct with the management.
Mico employs close to 10,000 people and manufactures and trades products as diverse as fuel injection equipment, industrial equipment, auto-electricals, hydraulics, electric power tools, packaging machines, security systems and Blaupunkt car audio systems. It also has a software division based in Bangalore.
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