The Hindu Business Line : `Go slow' at MRF plant on wage talks

PRODUCTION at MRF's Tiruvottiyur plant in Chennai has been affected following a stand-off between the management and the workers' unions over discussions on a wage settlement.

A company spokesman said, "there is a bit of a go slow", but production was on. He said the go-slow was due to wage negotiations.

However, representatives of the MRF Employees' Union said production had been hit not because of a go-slow by workers but because they had refused to work with trainees who were being inducted into jobs normally done by permanent workers.

Even the standing orders do not allow this, they said. The workers were just going by the rulebook, and production would reach normal levels if the trainees were not involved.

There were about 800 permanent workers, and the management has inducted over 200 trainees into the jobs. The last wage settlement for nearly a four-year period ended on March 2003, and it had covered over 1,045 workers of whom about 300 had retired, union representatives said.

Over the last 14 months they had not been able to arrive at a common ground for settlement. Among the issues were a wage increase, outsourcing of certain sections of work and increasing the duration of training period.

The Tiruvottriyur plant, the largest among the MRF's six production facilities, has the capacity to produce about 2,600 tyres a day including 1,000 truck tyres.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Tyres

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