It seems that the bumpy ride of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has not reached to its end as the Central trade unions have now appeared in the limelight contradicting the auto major’s step to sack 500 permanent employees from its pay roll. According to them, the largest car maker of the country has not just breached the Industrial Disputes Act, but has also commented failure on the part of company’s management, which was unable to conclude the dispute between the workers and top level management employees at a peaceful note.
The Indian auto industry recorded the most violent riot till date on July 18, 2012 at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki, which claimed the life of an HR manager and left several others wounded. Owing to this clash, the car maker came to the decision of firing around permanent 500 workers. On this, the Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, R C Bhargava quoted, “Our officials injured in the incident on July 18, as well as those who managed to escape, have identified workers involved in the violence. We have lost confidence in them and have issued termination notices to over 500 such employees. It is possible more notices would be sent once more people are identified.”
On the other hand, trade unions have opposed this step of Maruti Suzuki and commented that the auto major cannot just sack workers just because of loss of faith in them. As per them, the move of the company will be judged as unethical in the eyes of law. Trade unions like Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress and the Left-affiliated Centre for Trade Unions (CITU) and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) are framing plans to counter the verdict of Maruti Suzuki.
The General Secretary of CITU as well as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, “We will take legal recourse.” He further continued, “The company couldn't take such a decision without the permission of the state. It is totally unacceptable that the state government has allowed itself to be used by the company. The police are working as the company's peons and delivering letters to sacked employees.”
Expressing same sentiments, the National Secretary of AITUC, D L Sachdeva termed the company’s move as “mass victimisation”. Presence of unions in this mater is similar to that of consulting lawyers that whether the case should be taken to the high court or the Supreme Court, instead of consulting labour court or an industrial tribunal. He further said that the move chosen by the car maker was not just violating the Industrial Disputes Act but was also challenging the provisions of natural justice.
According to the National President of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Saji Narayanan, the authority for taking the decision regarding terminations of workers taken by Maruti Suzuki is only restricted to the Supreme Court, that too in exceptional situations. On the move taken by the country’s largest car maker, industry experts believe that the company should prove the crime of all the 500 sacked employees, rather than just commenting that they have loose faith in them. Narayanan further said that none of the judicial authority would dismiss 500 workers by categorising them as criminals without having proof for the same.
Trade unions believe that the car maker should just not look at the outcomes of incident and instead should also look at the causes that were behind the fateful day. Analysts believe that the company should sack those employees who were found guilty in riot and not should just find lame reasons to fire innocent workers at its Manesar plant.
