May call Bajaj Auto to resolve stir with workers: minister

Maharashtra Labour Minister Hassan Mushrif is likely to call the Bajaj Auto management next week for a meeting to resolve the workers' strike at its Chakan plant that entered the 17th day on Thursday.

After a meeting with the union leaders in Mumbai on Thursday, the minister told reporters that he has asked the chief labour commissioner to hold talks with the management and union in Pune on Friday, July 12.

"If the meeting fails to resolve the agitation, I will call the Bajaj management here next week," Mr Mushrif said.

Earlier in the day, representatives of the company's Chakan plant union and Shramaik Ekta Mahasangh, which claims representation of 88 unions in Chakan, Pimpri-Chinchwad and adjoining areas, called on the minister and apprised him of the workers' demands.

"We met the minister as we wanted to keep him abreast of the development and also our demands, which the management has failed to accept," Bajaj Auto employees union president Dilip Pawar told reporters at the state secretariat.

Around 1,500 employees, including 600-odd contract and temporary workers, have stopped work at the Chakan plant since June 25, demanding wage revision, better work conditions, withdrawal of "fake and flimsy" cases slapped on 21 employees and also a huge stock options.

The meetings with the minister came a day after talks between the management and its union failed to end the two-week-long deadlock.

The Pune labour commissioner had already issued a show-cause notice to the company last Tuesday, granting it three days' time to respond, over the alleged deployment of unlicensed contract workers at the plant.

"We will not take back our agitation as long as the management does not withdraw the suspension/ transfer orders of 21 employees. We are ready to negotiate on our other demands including wage revision if these employees are taken back," Mr Pawar said.

Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto said in statement that around 635 workers reported to work on Thursday and that it plans to produce more than 1800 vehicles at Chakan and 950 Pulsars at Waluj.

"More than 90 per cent of our requirement of all brands of Pulsar, Avenger and KTM will be achieved today," the statement said, adding the management and union along with the Labour Commissioner will meet again on Friday.