Workers agitation at Hero MotoCorp’s affects Haridwar plant

Production at Hero MotoCorp's plant in Haridwar has been affected with workers as workers launching an agitation against the suspension of two colleagues.

While workers claimed that production at the plant had come to a total halt, the management insisted that the impact was insignificant.

PTI quoted a technician, Krishnanand Bhatt at the plant as saying that the management had suspended two workers, one earlier this month and another on 29 August without proper reason and workers were demanding their reinstatement.

He added production had come to a halt as none of the workers was ready to work till the demands were met.

Disputing the claims of the workers, a company spokesperson said, the plant continued to operateon Friday and the impact on production was very insignificant.

He added that Saturday was an off-day at the plant, and the management was confident of a very quick resolution of the matter.

He added, that a show cause notice was served to a worker on Friday, for misrepresenting facts while applying for employment at the plant, in violation of the model standing orders and policies laid down by the company.

The agitation comes within four months of the inking a revised wage pact and quelling a labour unrest at the company's Gurgaon facility.

The Haridwar facility, the newest and largest of Hero Motor Corp's plants, rolls out best-sellers like the Splendor and Passion. Production at the plant which works three shifts averages around 8,500-9,000 units every day. According to union representatives in Delhi, the Haridwar plant employed around 5,000 workers, 600 of whom were on the company's payrolls.

The Gurgaon and Dharuhera units manufacturing 5,500-6,000 units a day each, employ over 1,200 permanent workers.

The labour strife comes at a time when companies in the automobile industry were boosting production to build inventory for the upcoming festive period.

The unrest at Hero's Haridwar unit comes as the latest in a series of labour strikes in the automobile industry in India in recent months. Earlier this month Pune-based Bajaj Auto settled a 50-day labour unrest at its Chakan facility. Workers at the plant were demanding 500 equity shares of the company at Re 1 each as part of a wage compensation package.