The Hindu Business Line : Contract workers' stir enters 2nd day at Honda

The strike by contract workers at Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's (HMSI) Manesar plant entered the second day today after efforts to end the impasse failed to yield results.

Officials from the State Labour Department met the contractors and the striking workers in order to broker an agreement, but the talks remained inconclusive, sources said.

The striking contractual workers, around 200 in number, are demanding some kind of a regularisation package, while the HMSI management has said that it is not possible.

The plant, which has a daily output of around 1,400 scooters and 400 motorcycles, has about 3,000 workers, of which around 1,500 are regular workers, 500 trainees and the rest contract workers.

"While the contract workers had mainly been taken on board for loading and unloading of consignments, a majority of them were actually doing assembly line functions," said Mr D.L. Sachdeva, Secretary of AITUC, who is involved in the HMSI workers' union.

"Since the contractor keeps changing these workers in a span of around six months to avoid any regularisation claims, the workers had been seeking some kind of a scheme going forward. The union is committed to taking care of them."

Terming the strike as illegal, company officials said that under the existing labour laws, a worker is entitled for regularisation only after 240 days of service while most of the striking contract workers were yet to complete 100 days in the factory.

"The management has nothing to do with the issue. It is between the contractors, their workers and the State Labour Department."

Production in the factory had not been affected due to the strike, the officials said.

Yesterday, police was deployed at the plant, a move termed as a precautionary measure by the management.

HMSI had witnessed prolonged labour unrest last year when some of its striking workers were beaten up by police while protesting against the dismissal of fellow workers.

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