Maruti strikes wage agreement with Gurgaon workers

New Delhi: The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, on Tuesday reached a wage settlement agreement with its workers at its Gurgaon plant, under which the employees will get an average salary hike of Rs 18,000 per month spread over three years.

Under the three-year agreement, to be implemented with retrospective effect from April 2012, the workers will receive 80 per cent of the increased salary in the first year and the rest in the following two years.

"We have reached an agreement with the management for our wages. The average increase in the salary of workers in the Gurgaon plant will be around Rs 18,000 a month," Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union general secretary Kuldeep Janghu said.

It is a satisfactory agreement considering that even a junior level employee will get a hike of Rs 15,000 per month, he said, adding, "The agreement shows that any issue between the workers and management could be settled through dialogue".

When contacted, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Operating Officer (Administration) S Y Siddiqui said: "After four months and 40 meetings, we are very happy to finalise the wage hikes for our both Gurgaon and Manesar plants".

Giving the breakup, he said the actual average hike in the salary would be Rs 14,800 per month. Over and above this, there will be an increase of Rs 1,000 per month on the ad-hoc allowance, besides the DA will be made variable to consider any further inflationary pressure in the society.

Also, as per the agreement the workers will get transport allowance of Rs 1,200 per month. Besides, MSI has agreed to increase the medical allowance of the workers apart from increasing the number of yearly scheduled holidays to 12.

"Gurgaon plant workers have readily agreed to our offer and the new three-yearly agreement will be signed in the next few days in presence of Labour Department officials. However, in absence of any union at Manesar plant, workers there will have to give individual acknowledgment to their superiors.

"With a 2/3rd majority of their opinion, we will take a call for the workers of Manesar plant," Siddiqui said.

The company has also reduced the probation period for technician trainees to two years from three years.

Besides, MSI will bear 90 per cent of medical expenses up to Rs 1 lakh for workers' parents, while it will be 80 per cent in case the expenses are over Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, parents had to stay together with employees to avail this benefit, but this condition has now been waived and only a dependence declaration has to be provided, he said.

When asked what will be the additional financial burden on the company due to this increase, Siddiqui said: "It will be as per our labour cost plan. We usually spend 2.4-2.5 per cent of our sales and there will be little increase, but not any drastic change."