Chennai: A section of employees of the Hyundai Motors at its Sriperumbudur plant have begun a sit-in strike protesting a wage agreement they say the management is pressuring them to sign in.

Hyundai, the country’s second largest auto manufacturer, had signed a wage settlement on Thursday with a pay rise of 21-24% over a three-year period.

The Hyundai Motor India Employees Union (HMIEU) which began the sit-in Thursday night at the plant claimed that the agreement ignored an assurance given to it at a tri-partite meeting of the employees’ representatives, the management and the labour commissioner on 17 May.

HMIEU had earlier gone on strike from 20 April to 7 May saying the management had not recognised the Union and had dismissed 80 employees, suspended 20 workers and transferred nine employees. The strike was called off after the meeting held by the labour commissioner on 17 May.

HMIEU president and Citu Tamil Nadu Committee’s general secretary A Sounderarajan said in a statement the management had agreed that it would not come to any wage revision settlement with the workers committee till 20 May.

However, it reached a settlement with a seven-member committee on 23 July and was pressuring other employees to sign in, he alleged.

A company spokesperson said “a section of workers are threatening to go on a strike. I don’t think anything major has happened there,” he said.