6 January 2017
PUNE: Bajaj Auto company in a press communiqué
said that the hunger strike called by Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana on 7th and
8th January is unrealistic.
Kailash J Zanzari, Senior Vice President (Manufacturing) said
that the main reason for Hunger Strike as
mentioned by Union is that the management has declared unilateral wage rise at
Chakan Plant and is pressurizing the union for accepting the wage-rise
declared, by adopting pressure tactics like transfer of workmen from Chakan to
other plants and giving false show cause notices. In addition, the pending
issue of 8 workmen dismissed from the services in the year 2013 is also
mentioned as one of the reasons. But according to the company the facts
are contrary.
The management was very
proactive in its approach and had started the process of said review from the
month of February 2016 itself. Number of meetings were conducted with the hope
that there would not be any delay in completing the review process.
The management had given
various proposals to the union, for the salary / wage increase and negotiation
was about to conclude. However, to our surprise union put forth an unreasonable
and unrealistic demand of reinstatement of the workers of Chakan plant who were
dismissed in the year 2013 - 14 from the services of the Company for committing
various acts of misconduct and whose cases are pending for adjudication before
the court. The court has also not given any Interim relief in these cases.
Due to delay in wage review,
a large number of workmen approached the management with a request to consider
giving them upfront wage rise immediately in view of festival season in October
2016. The management found substance in the request made by the workmen
and did not want its workmen to suffer financial hardship due to unrealistic
demands made by the union. Management therefore declared wage rise
ranging from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.11,500/- based on experience of individual workman for a period of three years from 1st April 2016 to 31st March
2019.
Management also paid arrears
for the period April 2016 to September 2016 immediately. It was made
clear in the notice that the wage rise will be adjusted as and when the
settlement will be signed with the union.
As far as transfer /
deputation of workmen from one plant to another is concerned, it has been a
regular practice in the company to transfer the workmen on the basis of
requirement of skills and need at other plants. In the present context the union has filed
four cases in the court challenging the transfer / deputation of workmen from
Chakan to other plants.
In three
cases, where order has come, the Industrial Court, Pune, in its interim order,
has held that the company has every right to transfer employees from one plant
to other plants of the company.
It may be worthwhile to mention here
that about 90% of Bajaj Auto employees, unionized as well as non-unionized,
located at different plants are consistently receiving the wage/ salary rise on
time every year including current year and are quite happy about it. Only 10%
workmen, who are members of Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana, are getting
delayed increment due to unjustified and irrational demands from its
leadership. Still to avoid hardship to workmen the management decided to give
unilateral wage rise in October 2016 which has been accepted by all the
workmen.
VKKS
leadership is always unreasonable and raises unrelated demands. During last
wage
review,
which was due from April 2013, the union had come up with a similar unrealistic
demand of allotment of shares to workmen and resorted to strike which lasted
for 50 days causing huge financial losses to the workmen and ultimately
realized their mistake and came back to work unconditionally.
This time,
it is the demand for reinstatement of dismissed workmen.
From the above it is very clear that
the union Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana has always been unrealistic,
unreasonable by raising unwarranted demands during wage review and
has always been delaying the process.
The union should not raise the issues
which are in fact nonexistent and extend full support in growth and development
of the company rather than creating unnecessary hindrances in smooth
functioning of the company, stated Bajaj Auto in this press communiqué.
0 comments:
Post a Comment