There was a further drop in production at Maruti's Gurgaon plant on Wednesday, which produced only 600 vehicles against the normal daily production of 2,800 vehicles. The production crunch owes itself to the workers sit-in strike at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL), in solidarity with the striking workers of Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant.

SPIL supplies diesel engines and also transmissions to Maruti Suzuki. No production has taken place at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant since the stay-in started on October 7.

Excise loss

“Owing to the labour unrest that began early June this year, we estimate the total excise loss to the Central Government of Rs 372.5 crore and loss of Rs 32.8 crore to the State government,” a company official close to the development told Business Line.

The company has suffered a production loss of 54,775 units since June 2011, translating into a revenue loss of Rs 1,643 crore. The loss to the vendors has been estimated at over Rs 1,300 crore.

“The whole of Gurgaon-Manesar belt owes its industrial climate to Maruti Suzuki, which is the dominant player. MSIL determines the overall output of the industry to a large extent because people don't switch brands that easily. Even at our plant we have immense under-utilised capacity because production at MSIL is at a standstill,” Mr. Srivats Ram, Managing Director, Wheels India Ltd (a vendor to MSIL), told Business Line.

On October 1, MSIL workers at the Manesar plant agreed to sign an agreement with the management ending over a month of deadlock that began on August 29.

According to the agreement, MSI agreed to reinstate 18 suspended trainees but refused to take back 44 regular employees who remained under suspension.

The workers, in turn, signed the ‘good conduct bond', which required them to declare that they would “not resort to go slow, intermittent stoppage of work, stay-in-strike, work-to-rule, sabotage or otherwise indulge in any activity, which would hamper normal production in the factory''.

Close to 2,000 workers at the Manesar plant and 6,000 workers from different factories of the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt, (including Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd, Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd) went on a sit-in-strike on October7, demanding that their colleagues, both permanent and contract, be reinstated.

The company claimed it rescued 500 workers from “intimidation” inside the factory premises, with the number of striking workers inside the facility coming down to 1,500. ‘About 170 regular workers have stayed away from the strike from the start,' the statement said.

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