Following the killing of the general manager, HR, of Maruti Suzuki Awnish Kumar Dev, 40, in case of workers' violent protests at the Manesar plant near Gurgaon, the Haryana government has cracked down on workers, arresting 99 of them and booking them for various crimes, including murder. In the unrest, which erupted in on Wednesday night after a company supervisor allegedly abused a worker, 85 persons, including three Japanese nationals, 45 managers and nine police personnel were injured.
The Gurgaon Police made arrests on the information given by the Maruti Management and CCTV footage recovered from the plant. The FIR registered at Manesar police station mentions 12 persons by name and 53 others, who are still to be identified. The plant has been shut till further orders. Following the violence, police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the plant, as it is the third such incident at the plant in past one year.
The Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union (MSWU), however, refuted the company’s allegations and said that instead of taking action against the supervisor who was involved in a scuffle with a shop floor worker 'the management immediately suspended the worker concerned without any investigation'.
'When the workers along with union representatives went to meet HR to demand action against the supervisor and revoke the unjust suspension of the worker, the HR officials flatly refused to hear our arguments,' the MSWU president Ram Meher said in a statement. He alleged that when negotiations were going on with the leaders of the union inside the office, 'the management called in entry of hundreds of bouncers on its payroll to attack the workers'.
Meanwhile, the Haryana government has sided with the company management, fearing the flight of capital from Gurgaon and state. It has given the Gurgaon Police a 24-hour deadline to arrest the remaining accused. The incident has left the Haryana government red faced, as in 2011 the state chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the police commissioner had taken the guarantee on behalf of the workers of Maruti Suzuki that no strikes or protests would take place in the Manesar plant that could either damage the property or cause any financial loss to the company.
As a pressure tactic, the management, at that point of time, had mulled over shifting the plant to Gujarat. After the general manager's killing, the possibility to shift the Manesar plant is once again being talked about. Maruti has already purchased land in Gujarat to set-up a new plant. Fearing reprisal, the state industries minister Randeep Singh Surjewala told mediapersons that the guilty would not be spared. 'We cannot allow the industrial environment to deteriorate in the state,' he said.
[With agnecy inputs]
The Gurgaon Police made arrests on the information given by the Maruti Management and CCTV footage recovered from the plant. The FIR registered at Manesar police station mentions 12 persons by name and 53 others, who are still to be identified. The plant has been shut till further orders. Following the violence, police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the plant, as it is the third such incident at the plant in past one year.
The Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union (MSWU), however, refuted the company’s allegations and said that instead of taking action against the supervisor who was involved in a scuffle with a shop floor worker 'the management immediately suspended the worker concerned without any investigation'.
'When the workers along with union representatives went to meet HR to demand action against the supervisor and revoke the unjust suspension of the worker, the HR officials flatly refused to hear our arguments,' the MSWU president Ram Meher said in a statement. He alleged that when negotiations were going on with the leaders of the union inside the office, 'the management called in entry of hundreds of bouncers on its payroll to attack the workers'.
Meanwhile, the Haryana government has sided with the company management, fearing the flight of capital from Gurgaon and state. It has given the Gurgaon Police a 24-hour deadline to arrest the remaining accused. The incident has left the Haryana government red faced, as in 2011 the state chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the police commissioner had taken the guarantee on behalf of the workers of Maruti Suzuki that no strikes or protests would take place in the Manesar plant that could either damage the property or cause any financial loss to the company.
As a pressure tactic, the management, at that point of time, had mulled over shifting the plant to Gujarat. After the general manager's killing, the possibility to shift the Manesar plant is once again being talked about. Maruti has already purchased land in Gujarat to set-up a new plant. Fearing reprisal, the state industries minister Randeep Singh Surjewala told mediapersons that the guilty would not be spared. 'We cannot allow the industrial environment to deteriorate in the state,' he said.
[With agnecy inputs]