The staff union of Bharat Forge has asked the corporation to reverse the layoffs produced throughout the lockdown at the Chakan plant. The corporation had laid off 167 workers at the Chakan plant in August 2020, citing the issues triggered by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. The Bharat Forge Employees Union in Chakan stated that when production had resumed at the plant, workers with more than 20 years of service have not been referred to as back to work.
The union has filed a case in the Mumbai High Court, claiming that the layoffs had been illegal and that the corporation need to recall the 167 staff, stated Santosh Tambe, a member of the union. Workers are obtaining only 50% of their standard and dearness allowance wages and are locating it challenging to sustain, Tambe stated. The corporation had two rounds of VRS in 2020, but no worker at the Chakan plant opted for it as persons want to hold on to their jobs, he stated. The union at Chakan has 210 permanent workers and only 40 of them have been retained by the corporation and they continue to work at the plant. The wage agreement at the Chakan plant has also been overdue for two years, Tambe stated.
According to Tambe, there had been 11 lines at the Chakan plant but some of them have been moved to the company’s Baramati plant but it is adding new lines for electric mobility so there is production at the plant and sufficient work for workers at the Chakan plant, he stated. The plant tends to make crankshaft, knuckles, gears, shaft and T Cap for automotives.
Bharat Forge’s primary plant in Pune at Mundhwa also has noticed a delay in wage agreement. Workers at Bharat Forge’s Mundhwa plant have been waiting for a wage settlement for 18 months, Santosh Sable, basic secretary of the Bharat Forge Kamgar Sangh Mundhwa, stated. To protest against the delay, an indefinitely speedy was scheduled from January 5, 2021 by the Bharat Forge Union, but it has been referred to as off for now, Sable stated.
The protest was place off immediately after the corporation assured the union that the wage agreement concerns would be resolved in 15 days, Sable stated. Bharat Forge’s VP of industrial Relations and Administration, Abhijeet Shah, urged them not to go on an indefinite speedy and alternatively resolve concerns by way of talks. He assured the workers union that the corporation management would attempt and resolve the matter in 15 days. Negotiations had been going on involving the union and the corporation management and all concerns concerning wage rise have to be sorted out only by way of talks, Shah stated in his letter to the Union.
The Mundhwa plant has about 1,500 workers. Around 300 workers are more than 50-years-old and 400 workers are more than 40-years-old. The corporation has attempted to trim its workforce at the Mundhwa plant by way of two rounds of VRS. There was no interest and only 3 workers opted to take the VRS, Sable stated. Workers did not discover the package eye-catching and had been seeking for much better terms in the subsequent round of VRS, which was anticipated quickly, Sable stated.