The Hindu Business Line : Bajaj Auto stops production at Akurdi from September

Bajaj Auto Ltd is stopping production of two-wheelers at its Akurdi plant near Pune with effect from September 1, and has issued a notice to workers that the six-day workweek has been cut to four days with immediate effect.

The company is shifting production of its scooter, Kristal, to its plant at Waluj near Aurangabad, while the 110 cc Discover, the second vehicle that used to be manufactured at Akurdi, has been phased out totally following an inventory correction, a senior Bajaj official said.

The move to halt production at its mother plant comes in the wake of Managing Director Mr Rajiv Bajaj’s speech at the AGM in July, where he had indicated that the company would like to shut down Akurdi since it was not price competitive.

‘Different settlement’

Also, it recently signed an agreement giving its 4,000-strong workforce at Waluj a generous wage hike and told Business Line last week, “We need a very different kind of settlement for Akurdi whereby both management and workme n understand and accept the sacrifices that must be made in order to restore Akurdi’s competitiveness.”

The official cutting of the workweek in Pune is a mere technicality. The plant has a capacity of 50,000 units a month, but with production down to less than 3,000 two-wheelers per month, the 2,700-strong workforce was practically idle.

During August, they will come to work for four days from Monday to Thursday, and get paid for five-and-a-half days. Further discussions on the issue are expected to take place next week.

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