In a peculiar turn of events on Tuesday, the Toyota Kirloskar plant in Bidadi in Ramanagara district of Karnataka claimed that the strike by employees was called off, nearly four months after it began on November 10, even as a group of workers said they were continuing their protest. The workers had started their protest alleging that their workload had increased unfairly in the pretext of the lockdown since November 2020. A section of the employees on strike told TNM that the agitation had not been officially called off and that they will continue until their demands are met.
Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) released a statement on Tuesday afternoon stating that the strike was called off. "TKM today confirmed that the TKM Employee’s Union has officially called off the ongoing labour strike at its factory in Bidadi, Karnataka. Although a majority of members from a total of 3,350 employees had already voluntarily resumed work earlier, the labour strike that has been continuing has now officially come to an end today," read a statement from TKM.
The statement said that an undertaking was given by union leaders who were part of the strike. "On March 1, TKM accepted the undertaking given by union leaders on behalf of the members that was presented by them to the government. The company has also made a final appeal to all the other members to return to work by March 5, 2021, and ensure synergies based on mutual trust for the future and to respect the terms of their mutual understanding.”
However, Gangadhar, Media Secretary, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employee Union, disputed TKM's claims and said that the strike was not officially called off yet. "We have officially not called off the protest. Four executive committee members went to the management and gave an undertaking. This is being manipulated by the management and they have issued a press statement saying that the protest has been called off. The executive committee members are those below the office bearers," Gangadhar said.
"We, the office bearers, have been suspended by the management for organising the strike, but the majority of the employees are with us and we are still protesting. About 1,000 workers have gone (back to work) till now but 2,000 workers are with us. I am reiterating that executive committee members are not union leaders. Now we are assessing the situation and we are thinking if we should change the manner in which we are protesting,” Gangadhar added.
TKM had declared a lockout at the manufacturing facility in Bidadi on November 11, 2020. This was after workers staged a sit-in protest following the suspension of a fellow employee, who was also the worker union’s treasurer. The workers alleged that TKM cited the COVID-19 induced lockdown to increase workload in an unscientific and illegal way. Amid the tussle, more than 60 employees were suspended. Though the lockout was lifted after the intervention of the Karnataka Labour Minister, another lockout was imposed on November 24 because of the ‘unruly’ behaviour of the workers.
The employees were allowed to come back to work on the condition that they sign an undertaking to not behave in an unruly manner. On January 13, TKM announced the withdrawal of the lockout. However, several employees continued the protest against the company's management.
With inputs from Shishir Rao