New Delhi: A five-day-long workers strike at Hyundai Motor India Ltd’s factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, ended on Tuesday after the Korean auto maker’s India unit reinstated some sacked workers, a company spokesman said.
Labour dispute: A file photo of employees at the Hyundai Motor plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, where the strike started last Thursday. Babu Ponnapan/Mint
Hyundai Motor, however, stopped short of recognizing an employees union.
Twenty among 75 workers dismissed on disciplinary grounds were reinstated and the transfers of nine revoked, the spokesman said. The remaining 55 will not be absorbed back, he added.
The latest round of labour disputes began late last Thursday when Hyundai reached a wage settlement with a works committee of seven members elected by workers. Workers were given a 21-24% hike, taking their basic pay to an average of Rs8,000, which remains unchanged.
For the past two years, the Hyundai Motor India Employees Union, which is supported by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), has been agitating, saying it has the support of a majority of 1,625 workers at the factory. This agitation has resulted in several strikes in the past two years with the last one ending on 7 May.
A Citu official said the union had shown its strength in the strikes. “They will have to recognize us in future. We are willing to hold an election or referendum,” said A. Soundarajan, general secretary of Citu’s Tamil Nadu chapter.