Manufacturing at Honda plant hit as sacked staff hold stir

Gurugram: Manufacturing and production work at Honda Motors factory in Manesar seem to be getting adversely affected due to the stir by the employees who were laid off by auto major citing slowdown. More than 1000 contractual employees have been laid off by the company in the last three months. Disappointed over unclear communication by the management and not being compensated, over 1000 employees are organising a sit-in protest against the company.

With the protest swelling, most of the units of Honda factory could not undertake the manufacturing on Wednesday and on Thursday, one shift by the factory was cancelled. To calm the situations, the labour ministry of the Haryana government has also come in to negotiate with the disgruntled employees.

The Honda motors company has said that the contractual employees are being laid off on account of the slowdown in the automobile sector, but the sacked employees seem to be unimpressed by the claims.

"Most of our colleagues have been out of jobs for four months. Even though we have been assured by the Honda management that our financial needs will be taken care of. No such efforts as of now have been made. We are now getting a feeling that Honda is doing this to take out the contractual employees and not giving them their rights," said Ravinder, one of the contractual employees who was shunted out.

The recent case cutting down the workdays in Maruti factories of Gurugram and Manesar and its adverse effects on job losses in auto ancillary units reflected how weak economic quarters were hurting the automobile industry.

The Gurugram-Manesar belt has more than 650 ancillary companies that produce automotive components for the three of the largest automobile companies based here –Maruti Suzuki Ltd, Hero Motocorp Ltd, and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI). The total number of people employed in this manufacturing hub is around 6 lakh, as per the labour department data.