Maruti sacks 500 employees, work to resume at Manesar

Manesar, Aug 16: India's largest car manufacturer

is set to resume production at its Manesar factory on Aug 21. The unit was shut down last month following a deadly violence, which even led to the death of an official and left several injured. The company suffered loss amounting to crores of rupees as a result.

On August 1, the Haryana police arrested 10 office bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Workers' Union, including its President Ram Meher and General Secretary Sarabjit Singh, which meant 114 people were arrested in connection with the incident.

Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said contract workers would not be employed in production in Manesar any more and the procedure to transform contract workers into permanent ones would start on Sept 2. Maruti has sacked 500 permanent workers following initial probe on the violence.

Bhargava said the 300 workers would start working on Aug 21 and the unit would primarily concentrate on 150 cars a day. Some of the security guards would also be armed, he added. The Manesar plant would start manufacturing Swift and Dzire models and the pace of production would gradually be increased.

It is also learnt that the state police will deploy a special unit of personnel at the plant and Maruti will be provided with 40 personal security guards. Another 100 security guards will be employed separately by Maruti.

Bhargava said all the 96 people who were injured in the violence had been discharged from the hospital and some of them also joined work. He said safety of the employees was the company's topmost priority.

OneIndia News