BackToyota India output halves amid worker pay dispute
Toyota says only 300 of the 4,200 unionized staff have resumed work
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Bangalore: Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. said production at its two Indian plants has fallen by half as many of its unionized workers remain off the job over a pay dispute.
The Toyota workers and the company’s management at two plants near Bangalore have been negotiating the pay issues for 10 months.
“Production has declined 50% to 350 cars from 700 cars a day," senior Toyota Kirloskar Motors executive Shekar Viswanathan told a news conference in Bangalore late Friday.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd is the Indian unit of the world’s biggest car maker.
Its Bangalore complex produces some 310,000 autos annually, including Toyota’s flagship Camry sedan, the Corolla, and the Prius hybrid, mostly for the Indian market.
Just 300 of the 4,200 unionized employees have resumed work, with others staging protests outside the plants almost a fortnight since the company lifted an eight-day lockout, Toyota said.
The car maker had said workers could return to work on 24 March provided they signed a good conduct pledge after it suspended some workers over accusations they had disrupted production and made threats to supervisors.
Viswanathan dismissed the unions claims that the management’s “good conduct" pledge had clauses preventing the workers from union activity.
Toyota’s plant problems come in the wake of other, sometimes violent, labour disturbances at Indian car factories in recent years.
In 2012, workers at India’s top car maker by sales, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, went on a rampage, killing one executive and injuring over 100 others in a row over pay and working conditions. AFP
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