New Delhi, October 10: Plagued by labour unrest, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India has threatened to shut its factory at Manesar in Haryana and move to an alternate location, although the workers’ union has denied that they were on strike.
“Our production has come down to 50 percent in the last two months due to go-slow strike by workers. No company can go on like this forever. We have requested the state authorities for help,” Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India vice-president General Affairs Mohan Deepak said.
“In case things don’t improve we will have no option but to shut the operations (at Manesar) and look for a more conducive place to do business,” Deepak added.
Deepak said the company has also approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking to direct the workers’ union not to disrupt normal production and prosecute those who have violated law. The matter will come up for hearing next week.
HMSI Employees union president Ashok Yadav, however, denied that the workers were on strike and said the decline in production was due to non-availability of components as some supplying factories were on strike.
“Production at our factory is low but it is not that we are on strike or we are going slow. The ongoing labour strike in Rico, Sunbeam and some other ancillary companies have led to drop in component supplies,” Yadav said.
After the violent strike at HMSI that rocked Gurgaon in 2005, HMSI and the workers union had signed a long-term agreement in 2006, which expired this July. The workers and the management are re-negotiating the terms and conditions. Also, Haryana Labour Commissioner has been engaged to arrive at a solution.
Deepak claimed that about 100-odd workers have prevented installing a third production line under the instruction of the union and also even threatened engineers and managers who tried to carry out the work.
He said due to the strike by the workers, the company’s production has come down to half of its daily capacity of 4,200 units. HMSI, has so far invested Rs 1,000 crore in India and has an annual capacity of 10 lakh units, which it had planned to increase to 15 lakh units in the next three years.
“With the situation that we face now, we have to rethink but we expect the government to intervene and bring a solution,” he said but adding that Honda won’t shy away from moving out in case things don’t improve. Earlier this year Honda Power Products had shifted its plant from Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to Greater Nodia after labour unrest.
HMSI currently has 1872 workers, who are a part of the union and another 2500 who are on contract.
–Agencies