Suzuki Motor Chairman, Osamu Suzuki, has said that that July 18 violence at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant was “premeditated”, though it is still not clear by whom and why.
However, he said that Haryana will remain the “first home” for Maruti Suzuki, despite its plans to set up a new plant in Gujarat.
“We have no intention of leaving,” Suzuki said at a media interaction on Sunday. “We’re here to stay, but are very clear that violence will not be tolerated.”
Maruti’s supreme boss (Suzuki owns a controlling stake in the domestic carmaker) also assured the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the same, at an earlier meeting on Sunday. He told Hooda that the “root cause” of the clash, that claimed the life of an official and injured several others, must be found to avoid any future mishaps.
Suzuki is on a week-long tour of the country ending with the Maruti AGM on August 28{+t}{+h}. The meeting with Hooda was also attended by top Maruti officials, R.C. Bhargava (Chairman), Shinzo Nakanishi (MD), S.Y. Siddiqui (COO-Administration) and M. M. Singh (COO-Production).
Maruti Suzuki will now target a mix of 75 per cent permanent workers (from 50 per cent), the rest being on contract. This is the same policy followed in Japan, Suzuki said.
He indicated that there may have been “other issues”, such as lack of housing facilities, that led to the violence. “The union had been told a month before of our plan to regularise workers (by March, 2013). More than two-thirds of the workers had signed the document choosing these leaders,” he said.
Meanwhile, asked if the dismissal of 500 workers was discussed in the meeting with Haryana CM, Bhargava said that Hooda is of the view that the guilty must be punished.
“There is no word of more dismissals yet. Unless some more names come up in the (Police) investigation, more people will not be terminated,” he said. Various workers’ unions, including the one at Maruti’s Gurgaon plant, are strongly pressing for the re-instatement of these workers and demanding a CBI probe.
Gujarat Visit
On Friday, Suzuki had met the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, to formalise Maruti’s initial Rs 4,000-crore investment on a new car plant in the State, which may go up to over Rs 6,000 crore over time. An agreement had been signed in June this year.