“We are not signing the undertaking because it falsely implicates some employees being responsible for threatening assembly line supervisors and slowing down production resulting in the lockout,” union president Prasanna Kumar told IANS.
Referring to the suspension of about 30 employees for misconduct and posing threat to management personnel and plant machinery, Kumar said instead of issuing chargesheet or taking disciplinary action against them, the company unilaterally declared lockout without the 14-day prior notice as per labour laws.
“Instead of resolving the issue amicably, the management is not only misusing apprentices to work, but also hired contract labourers to do our job, which is skilled and has stringent processes to ensure quality in compliance with the company's global production standards,” Kumar observed.
Though the company operates in two shifts on normal days with about 2,500-3000 per shift, it is able to manage single shift with apprentices and contract labourers, using about one-third of the installed production capacity.
“By using outside labour and semi-skilled apprentices, management wants to show it can run the plants without us, but is risking safety and compromising on quality in the process,” Kumar pointed out.
