The Prime Minister made this commitment while presenting the Labour Ministry’s Shram Awards to workers for their contributions to increasing production, productivity, enhancing efficiency and promotion of innovation. He affirmed the Government’s commitment to do everything possible “to ensure good industry-labour relations”. This too should have been surprising for observers of UPA II Government’s Labour Policy implementation in recent years.

In fact, addressing the awardees Manmohan Singh himself revealed the cause of his concern, when he said, “recently we have witnessed some incidents of industrial unrest. This is a matter of serious concern to me and I believe we need to address this issue with alacrity and sincerity”. He believed that workers and management had a “symbiotic relationship” and therefore they should work in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation.

The industrial unrest Dr Manmohan Singh referred to obviously was the one in the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., as a result of which the Maruti-production had come to a grinding halt. The management’s moves to divide workers, browbeat them by dismissing and suspending workers’ leaders and even Haryana Government conniving at the management’s unlawful actions failed to cowdown workers. This had made the Prime Minister to emphasise the need to reform labour relations “with alacrity and sincerity”.

Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, addressing the Shram Awardees, made yet another significant observation. He said that the objective of maximum utilization of resources, quantum increase in productivity and efficiency could not be achieved unless the managements, workers and trade unions came together and helped evolve an ethos and work culture, reports INTUC fortnightly ”The Indian Worker”. He too has gone on record, for the first time, to underline the importance of a union’s role in ensuring more and better production. And, this, at a time when Governments and managements are making it more and more difficult for workers to get their unions registered.

It is no secret that in Manesar Maruti Suzuki plant, the basic point of dispute was the workers’ move to form a union of their own. They had not raised any other issue as yet. The workers’ dharna inside and outside the Maruti plant was against penalization of workers and their leaders for forming Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) having plant workers as its office-bearers. MSEU was not acceptable to the management. And, Haryana Labour Department would not register MSEU. Moreover, this was not the first dispute on workers’ union formation in the Gurgaon-Manesar auto-manufacturing industrial belt. Honda industry had seen it earlier.

The workers in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) faced many problems at workplace but unfortunately these were never reflected in print or electronic media. Whereas MSIL’s achievements could be seen flashed extensively in media. This is so because MSIL management had enough funds to afford it while workers even collectively can never afford such a luxury.

Fortunately Economic and Political Weekly has given some insight into the MSIL working conditions which deserve attention. It says, “there are about 3000 workers at Manesar plant, with a large number on contract workers. Salaries range from Rs 6000 to Rs 18,000 for senior permanent workers. Each worker handles about 600 cars a day in his shift of eight hours, which implies that each worker’s action is limited to much less than a minute. The workers get no more than a 7 minute tea/snack/urinal break and another 20-minute lunch break every day. No medical or casual leave is allowed and each day’s absence costs a worker Rs 1500, while even a minute’s delay in reaching the assembly line after his tea or lunch break costs him half a day’s wage.

“The issues workers wanted to raise but could not since the official union is management-controlled body. The workers have been agitating for an independent union of their own – and have formed the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) with workers of the plant as its office-bearers. The management and Haryana’s Labour Department refused to recognise MSEU and negotiate with them.”

The Weekly reporting another noteworthy incident in MSIL says: “Around August the management alleged that some cars had been sabotaged by the workers. The workers themselves have stoutly denied this and pointed out that the entire factor floor as well as other parts of the premises are covered by security cameras making it easy for the management to identify which worker has sabotaged the production process. No evidence has given but the management has gone ahead and dismissed 23 workers and suspended another 26 at the time of writing.” (10.9.2010)

In the backdrop of such depressing working conditions in the MSIL, the determined struggle by its workers to have a union did at last produce results notwithstanding the repression let loose by the management. The Haryana Labour Department finally intervened and brokered an agreement. Shiv Kumar General Secretary MSEU, Rajesh Kumar, Secretary, Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union (SPIEU) and Anil Kumar, President, Suzuki Motorcycle India Employees Union (SMIEU) are reported to have expressed satisfaction with the agreement. Naveen Kumar, President, SPIEU also added, “our wage settlement discussions are continuing.”

According to the agreement, the management has agreed to reinstate 64 permanent workers but another 30 will remain under suspension; the company assured that internal enquiries against suspended workers would be wrapped up in the next 10 days. Around 1200 casual workers are to be reinstated in next 7-10 days when production becomes normal. Workers will not be paid for the strike period.

The agreement also provides that MSI management and Manesar plant workers agree to set up two committees : Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) and Labour Welfare Committee (LWC) – these committees will have representatives from the management and the workers. Besides, a Labour Officer from the Haryana Government will be a permanent invitee to GRC, who will review the GRC proceedings.

As is wellknown, agreement has been reached between management and workers of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The strike has ended in MSIL so also the stir in its allied bodies Powertrain India and Motorcycle India. Will industrial peace in India’s prestigious car producing company sustain? Difficult to find an answer, because much depends on the MSIL management as to how diligently it helps implement the agreement. Prime Minister wants to ensure “good industry-labour relations. Is the Maruti management at all bothered about it?

Indications are that MSIL management thinks otherwise. The management seemed to be thinking to defeat workers’ unity and demoralise workers. It has already shunted out some of the important union leaders under voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) by paying them huge amounts by way of compensation. It does speak about some leaders’ treachery but it speaks more about the Maruti Suzuki management’s dishonesty. It is forgotten that Maruti workers are now an awakened lot. President of the Suzuki Powertrain India workers’ union, who too had been suspended and was excluded during the final agreement, has said that he has refused to take payoff and may even go to court. (IPA Service)