Defying the High Court's orders asking them to vacate the premises, workers at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant continued with their stay-in protest for the eighth consecutive day on Friday. There was no production on Friday.
According to the Court's directions, the local administration and police made efforts to get the striking workers to vacate the company's premises at Manesar plant, but to no avail.
Court's directions
On Thursday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed that there would be no sit-in strike within 100 metres of MSI's Manesar plant. Mr Justice Surya Kant of the High Court issued further directions that workers on sit-in protest at the plant should be taken out and agitating workers should not be allowed to stop other willing workers from resuming duty.
The court also asked the police authorities to ensure that workers who wish to join the
No production
On Friday, there was no production at Maruti's Gurgaon plant, too. The plant will remain closed on Saturday as well. This was on account of shortage of components, due to the strike by workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL), which supplies engines and transmissions to Maruti Suzuki.
Meanwhile, voicing concern over labour unrest, industrialist Mr Y.K Modi, Member, ILO Governing Body and former President of FICCI, urged the Haryana Government to step in, as he felt that the consequences would not be confined to Maruti Suzuki alone.
In a statement, Mr Modi said, “The series of strikes since June this year had already caused an estimated Rs 350 crore excise revenue loss to the Government, about Rs 1,540 crore net loss to the company, and is expected to swell further.”
Workers at MSI's Manesar plant went on a stay-in strike on October 7 demanding the reinstatement of over 1,000 casual staff and 44 regular workers, who were not allowed to rejoin work after an earlier 33-day stand-off that started on August 29.
The company shares closed at Rs. 1028.45 apiece, down 2.65 per cent from the previous close, on BSE on Friday.