Workers at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant observed a one-hour tool down strike on Thursday in a protest action against the management's decision to suspend four workers for “allegedly assaulting a supervisor” on Wednesday.
Around 70 cars could not roll off the lines due to the tool-down.
When contacted, a company spokesperson said: “One of the supervisors was assaulted by four to five workers yesterday (Wednesday), and when disciplinary action was being taken by way of suspension today (Thursday), they struck work at the plant.” Of the four, two are office-bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Employees' Union — which has not yet been recognised by the company's management — including its General Secretary, Mr Shiv Kumar.
“A few workers went on a short strike as a reaction to some disciplinary action taken by the management. However, the situation has now been managed. There has been negligible production loss and the second shift started on schedule at about 4 p.m today,” Mr M.M. Singh, Managing Executive Officer (Production), Maruti Suzuki, told Business Line .
Just over a month ago, workers at the Manesar plant struck work for 13 days demanding the formation of a new union. The stir resulted in a production loss of 13,400 cars, valued at Rs 460 crore. The company's shares closed down 1.66 per cent at Rs 1,186.45 on the BSE on Thursday.