Toyota Kirloskar Motor lifts lock-out at Karnataka plant after 2 months

After nearly two months of lock-out, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has resumed operations at its Bidadi plant in Karnataka today with over 1,200 employees on board, said the Japanese carmaker. These employees had expressed their intention to work with discipline through a simple undertaking of good behaviour.

The plant manufactures variants such as Innova and Fortuner and has two units with an annual production capacity of up to 310,000 vehicles.

The 432-acre plant with two facilities was operational with minimum staff but with the lockdown being lifted, it will restart two shifts. The company had been operating with skeleton staff rolling out less than 100 units a day compared to the customary 450-500 units a day after the lockout was announced.

Of the total 6,000 staff at Bidadi plant, nearly 3,500 are part of the Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Employees Union. A spokesperson of the TKM Employee Union claimed that only 300 employees of the 3,500 strong union have signed the undertaking while the remaining employees will continue to protest.

 “The unilateral increase of the workload was behind the workmen's protest, but workers were not on strike. Our attempts to invite the attention to this issue were ignored by the management,” alleged Gangadhar M N, joint secretary, TKM Employees Union.

The suspension, pending enquiry of 66 unionised employees for serious misconduct will continue and domestic enquiries will be conducted in line with the principles of natural justice, according to the Company.

The first phase of the lockout started on November 10 on allegations of increased workload. Though the state labour department ordered workers to call off their strike and resume operations on November 19, less 10 per cent returned to work according to the company. Hence it was forced to extend its lockdown four days later as the situation was “volatile”.