Maruti shows door to 500 permanent workers; decides to re-open Manesar plant from August 21

16 August, 2012

India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki will re-start operations at its riot-hit Manesar plant, near Gurgaon from August 21. Maruti Suzuki's chairman RC Bhargava said that there will be strong security measures in place to ensure the safety of the employees.

NOTABLY, DUE to a scuffle between management and workers, which led to the death of senior Maruti official Awanish Kumar Dev, the Maruti management had shut down the operations at the Manesar plant for an unspecified period.

Addressing a press conference today, RC Bhargava said that all the managerial staff who got injured during the violence have been discharged from the hospital. There are around 700 managerial people working at the plant of whom around 100 got seriously injured during the violence.

Bhargava added that around five hundred permanent workers have been fired on the basis of initial investigation reports. There were around 3000 workers at the plant out of which around 1600 were permanent employees. The company has also decided to start a process of regularizing the contractual workers on the basis of their eligibility.

Maruti's Manesar plant produces 5.5 lakh cars, mainly the famous hatchback models Swift and Dezire, in a year. The company will roll out around 150 cars in a day, initially, and will gradually increase the number.

Last week, the Haryana government, in a bid to assure the company a secure environment, decided to constitute a Rapid Action Force with 500 police personnels. Out of this, 100 security personnels, which include 25% armed men, will be on duty during each shift to maintain security.