After the unfortunate mishap at the Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant in which a senior executive lost his life, state government officials are speculated to be pondering over shutting down the plant. The violent incident that took place on July 19, 2012 is the second most bizarre incident, related to industrial relationships. The first such unpleasant happening was reported in 2009 when the Vice-President of Pricol was being killed by employees in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Awanish Kumar, who lost his life in the clash, was serving as the General Manager in HR department. The burnt body of Kumar was recovered on the same day, and was later identified by his family members. The fight left many other workers and executives with serious injuries as well. This was a blow below the belt for the car maker, who has been trying to calm down the labour unrest at the plant since last year. During the strikes of last year, the company ramped up losses worth around Rs. 2,500 crores. However, after the recent incident, the shares of Maruti Suzuki India Limited have gone by 9 per cent to Rs. 1,117, which is the lowest ever since June 26, 2012.
The incident has been reported to the partner Japanese company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, which owns more than 50 per cent stake in the alliance. A team of high-level managers from the Japanese company will be visiting the Manesar plant to asses the situation. A single day lock-down of the plant costs the car maker approximately Rs. 75 crores with a loss of production of more than 1,200 units.
As per a senior Haryana state government official, police have taken control of the plant and a lockout is inevitable. MSIL will regain the control of the plant only after all the investigations have been carried out. The labour department has dispatched a detailed report to the state government regarding the same. This report will also be sent to the central government as well as Chief Labour Commissioner since now Japan is also involved in the case with Suzuki Motor Corporation owning 54.4 per cent stake in Maruti Suzuki. The Japanese company is planing to invest more than Rs. 12,000 crores in the plants across Haryana and the upcoming one in Gujarat.
The company will be moving out the entire inventory at the Manesar plant in the next two-three days. This move is in line with the strategy of MSIL to kick start the production at the factory, which suffered a partial damage to its production line in the fight. Maruti Suzuki will also transfer the manufacturing of its top-selling Swift hatchback and DZire sedan to the second plant in Haryana at Gurgaon.
