Pune News: The prefix, Hamara, is threatening go out of the lives of a majority of about 2,730 Bajaj employees at the automobile major’s Pune production facility at Akurdi, set up in 1960. While the move to stop two-wheeler production at the Pune plant has not come as a surprise, what has stunned them is the manner in which Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) has gone about it — by telling them that they can continue to draw salary for five-and-a-half days a week without bothering to come to work, starting September 1.

 The BAL management is understood to have listed about 700 employees who should report for work while the rest will get the wages at the rate of five-and-a-half days a week, at home.

According to experts dealing in labour laws, this is nothing but an unfair labour practice trying to be imposed, equivalent to a lay-off as it goes against the essence of the provisions laid down by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Bajaj, when contacted, said, “Sorry, no further comment now; there will be more next week.

Ajit Abhayankar, district secretary, CITU, whose organisation has members in the thousands of small scale ancillary units that stand to get hit by the Bajaj move to take production from Pune to Waluj in Aurangabad and to Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, said this was as clear a case of layoff as any as the company has not claimed any recession.

In fact, Bajaj Auto had a very good year as its net profit grew to Rs 1,237.96 crore in 2006-07 from Rs 1,101.63 crore a year ago. With the top line growth being commensurate at Rs 10,834.27 crore (Rs 8,748.38 crore), Bajaj declared a 400 per cent dividend.

Earlier, in a statement issued on Wednesday, Bajaj had said: “Management would be well within its rights to have all such workmen report to the plant, as per their normal shift timings, 5 days per week. However, for the time being, even this requirement is being waived, primarily in the interest of the convenience of the workmen. As such, all workmen will be virtually receiving their normal wages without having to leave home.”

The Akurdi plant will be shut down from September 1 and no vehicles will be produced at this plant, he said. It is understood that the stand-off has come in the wake of the company’s recent attempts to impose a four-day-week regimen starting September not finding a positive response from the workers.

The pay-for-no-work, most of the workers feel convinced, is one gift horse that needs to be looked upon warily as they feel this is something that no management can offer on a permanent basis. At an average wage bill of Rs 10,000 per worker, it will cost BAL about Rs 2 crore to keep the offer on the roll.

On Thursday, deputy labour commissioner, Anil Lakaswar, had given a clean chit to BAL saying there was no labour issue involved — something that has been disputed by the two workers unions at BAL, Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sangathna and Bhartiya Kamgar Sena.

Bajaj’s statement admits that the last wage settlement between the management and the workers has technically completed its tenure on February 28, 2007, and the management has for the past several months been discussing a new settlement with the unions. The plant closure was not a means of arm-twisting workmen into accepting any VRS as no VRS was planned, he said.

Bajaj had spoken of the plant’s unimpressive performance at the company’s annual general meeting in July. He said that the 2,200 workers in the plant produced 50,000 vehicles while Bajaj’s new plant at Pantnagar was producing one million vehicles with just 500 workmen. Bajaj told shareholders at the AGM that he was in favour of shutting down the facility but that existing labour laws made it impossible for the company to do so.

“The Akurdi Plant closure is necessitated...largely due to the impact of Government policies on capacity rationalisation, chiefly the regional distortions created by inconsistent tax benefits, and the continuing evil of octroi in the State of Maharashtra in stark contrast to most of the rest of the country that is free from it,” Bajaj had said in his statement.

Now, it’s up to about 2,000 workers who’ve been offered pay- for-no-work to call the bluff when BAL’s Akurdi plant opens for work after the weekend, on Monday.

by http://www.indianexpress.com