Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp of Japan, on Monday said that there was a production loss of about 2,000 car units during the last 25 days because of its workers’ agitation. The company had yesterday declared a lockout at its two manufacturing plants at Bidadi near Bangalore, following the failure of talks between the management and the union over wage negotiation.

Shekar Viswanathan, the company’s Vice-Chairman, told newspersons that he expects to meet the Karnataka Labour Minister on Tuesday to discuss the workers’ agitation.

“Some of the Toyota workers resorted to go slow, abuse as well as sabotage which forced us to resort to lock out.” Viswanathan said he expected the Government to appreciate the fact that discipline on the shop floor cannot be compromised under any circumstances.

Wage hike pattern

He pointed out that the company had offered an increase of ₹3,050 in wages to the employees and would stick by that figure.

The workers’ union had sought ₹4,000 more, which is same as last year’s wage increase.

It had earlier offered an increase of ₹2,400 but agreed to hike it. The average ‘take-home’ salary of the worker is about ₹25,500 per month, which Viswanathan said was on par with most other auto manufacturing companies. There are about 4,500 unionised staffers and 400 on contract. The spokesperson said that another 15,000 workers belonging to ancillary units too have been affected because of the agitation by the Toyota workers.

Viswanathan said the company was not able to increase wages further because of the slowdown in the auto sector, which had affected the company’s sales.

While the total capacity of both the plants was 3.1 lakh units a year, they were working at about half that capacity at present.

He pointed out that there has been no wage increase for any employee of the company except some junior staff because of the “difficult times the company is facing at present”.

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