The All India Trade Union Congress, which has just claimed a conquest by bringing Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India's workers' union into its fold, has now trained its guns on Maruti Udyog Ltd, the leading producer of passenger cars in the country.
The Maruti Udyog Employees Union, with active support from AITUC, has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in sorting out issues with the Suzuki management.
The issues pertain to the dismissal of 92 employees during a labour trouble at Maruti in 2000-2001 and several hundreds opting for a voluntary retirement scheme, which, it is alleged, is not exactly voluntary.
In this respect, a memorandum signed by MUEU's general secretary Mathew Abraham, along with a covering letter from AITUC general secretary and Communist Party of India's Lok Sabha member Gurudas Dasgupta, has been sent to the prime minister.
A Maruti Udyog spokesperson said the company's union had long since been de-recognised and therefore was not a representative of the workers. "This is a group formed by ex-employees of the company and those who had taken the VRS," said the company spokesperson.
Dasgupta's covering letter says, "the (Suzuki) management has summarily dismissed 24 activists of the union without holding any enquiry, another 36 with ex-party enquiry, and 32 for not signing improper and illegal undertakings imposed by the management."
Twenty-six were charge-sheeted but were "compelled" to take VRS, while hundreds of other employees were also forced to take VRS, says the letter.
Dasgupta has also said that the Suzuki management enjoyed the support of the previous National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre and the former Chautala government in the state.
"After a change of government both at the Centre and state, the workers and their families are hoping for justice to be done to them," says the letter.
A delegation consisting of Dasgupta, Abraham, AITUC national secretary DL Sachdev and a few other Maruti Udyog Employees' Union members met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 3.
"The prime minister has promised to intervene in this matter in the next two to three weeks," Sachdev said.
But sources say the prime minister has voiced apprehension in taking up this issue, as the echo of the labour trouble at Honda's Manesar facility has barely died down.
The memorandum also alleges that Maruti Udyog had replaced over 2000 permanent employees with contract workers, following the September 2000 management-labour dispute.
