Fresh labour trouble broke out at Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar on Saturday morning when several hundred temporary workers staged a demonstration outside the plant demanding immediate wage hike. The agitating workers alleged that the police lathi-charged them and the local villagers beat them up.
The workers alleged that the management called the police who lathi-charged the agitating workers to disperse them. Denying the allegations of lathi-charge, Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Virk said that workers were sitting on the road outside the plant and had taken law in their hands. “We are in the process of registering a First Information Report (FIR) against them. The police did not lathi-charge the workers,” Mr. Virk told The Hindu.
According to a source in the Maruti Plant, the permanent workers had entered into a tripartite agreement with the management on wage hike on Friday following which the temporary workers also demanded a similar increase. “The management assured to look into their demands, but several hundred workers gathered outside the gate of Maruti Plant in Manesar on Saturday morning demanding immediate hike. At this point the management called the police. Some local villagers also entered into an altercation with the workers and beat them up,” said the source.
Maruti Suzuki spokesperson said that a fist-fight broke out between the workers and the locals after the latter asked them not to protest near the site of a fair. “The locals were holding a fair nearby the plant and requested the workers not to hold protest close to their place. At this fist-fight broke out between two groups. It was not connected to the protest,” said the spokesperson.
The Manesar Plant of Maruti has over 3,000 temporary workers. They have been demanding wages at par the permanent workers.
A senior manager was charred to death and 40 executives were beaten up allegedly by the agitating workers when violence first broke out at the plant in July 2012.
