The Hindu Business Line : Toyota employees go on flash strike

EMPLOYEES of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKML) went on a lightning strike on Friday afternoon, affecting production in the Bidadi plant near Bangalore. The workers continued their stoppage of work till late Saturday evening to protest the management's decision to dismiss three of their colleagues found "guilty of gross misconduct following independent inquiries."

The management's decision related to an incident in 2004 when 15 employees had been suspended for the disruption of work as well as disciplinary reasons. However, TKML decided to reinstate one of them, while dismissing three employees.

A company spokesman said: "We have reinstated one employee as the misconduct proved against him did not warrant dismissal from the service... In the case of the other ten suspended employees, action will depend upon the outcome of the pending enquiry. We always have been fair and firm in all our actions."

Some employees had opposed the findings of the independent enquiries and resorted to stoppage of work without prior notice of 14 days as per the Industrial Disputes Act and struck work illegally. They also prevented other employees forcibly from working.

The spokesman said the Labour Department has already initiated conciliation proceedings.

The next meeting is expected to be held on Monday.

This is the third strike since TKML started its operations in 1997. Employees had struck work in 2001 and 2002. Only last year, the company entered into wage pact, revising remuneration by 15 to 18 per cent.

There are 2,378 on the rolls of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, of which 1,550 are union-affiliated workers. The spokesman said the stoppage of work had caused production loss worth around Rs 1 crore since Friday.