Hit with a slow down in the automobile industry, Tata Motors is reported to have asked 300 of its 3,600 temporary workers at its commercial vehicles business unit at Jamshedpur not to report for duty from Monday.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the Jamshedpur plant till August this year had been assembling around 350-400 chassis every day, which is currently down to around 225 to 250 per day at present,  a drop of 35 per cent, which may come down further given the sluggish market conditions at present.

The reduction in demand for its vehicles in domestic and international market has compelled the management to reduce production leading to the downsizing of the workforce and if the demand declines further, the company may be forced to lay off more temporary staff.

The report quoted an unnamed Tata Motor executive as saying that downsizing was a normal process, and temporary workers were hired or removed  according to production demand.

Ironically, barely a month back, some 300 temporary workers were called in to join duty.

A spokesperson from the Tata Motors Workers' Union said temporary workers have been removed from their jobs for a short period and once the market situation improves, all of them would get back their jobs. The workers were in tandem with the management decision as they felt that the management had no other option taking into account the global recession.

This decline in the production at Tata Motors is expected to have a cascading effect on ancillary units in the area, as around 70 per cent of the 800 units supply to Tata Motors, which will result 25 per cent production cut and may further fall depending on production cut by Tata Motors.