Karnataka government seeks fair settlement in Toyota imbroglio

Bangalore, March 18 (PTI) The Karnataka government today stepped in to help resolve the imbroglio over the lockout at Toyota Kirloskar Motor's two manufacturing plants at Bidadi near here, saying it was working for a fair settlement.

"Government is trying to reach a fair settlement between company management and workers' union. The Deputy Labour Commissioner will take a decision. We hope both plants will resume production soon," Labour Minister Parameshwar Nayak told reporters here.

Nayak held separate talks with the management and the workers' union at his residence here.

Toyota Kirloskar declared a lockout at the two plants at Bidadi on March 16 following the failure of talks between the management and the union over wage negotiations.

The union is demanding a wage hike of Rs 4,000 as against Rs 3,050 proposed by the management, Toyota Kirloskar Workers Union President Prasanna Kumar said.

Kumar said they are meeting the Deputy Labour Commissioner to sort out the problem. He said the management was diverting attention from the issue of their charter of demands related to workload and safety by imposing the lockout on the plant.

"We are asking the management to lift the lockout and provide the job. We are asking for salary increase from 2013 and we are discussing with them. But this was shocking to us," he said.

He said as many as 600 employees have been affected by the lockout and accused the management of falsely levelling allegations that employees are slow in production and threatening the supervisor.

Production has gone down because of decreasing sales, Kumar said, adding, "We didn't reduce production. They have reduced the working time.

 Toyota Kirloskar Vice Chairman Shekhar Vishwanathan said he could not talk about any solution but the company wants workers to get back as production is being affected.

"We produce 570 cars every day and that is being affected," he said. It is also important the minister understands the company's position in a recession, Vishwanathan said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor is a 89:11 joint venture between the world's largest auto company Toyota and the Pune-based Kirloskar Group, respectively. The two plants, set up on 432 acres of land in the Bangalore suburb, have an installed capacity of 3,10,000 units, split into 1 lakh and 2.10 lakh units.

The company manufactures the MPV segment leader Innova, SUV Fortuner, sedans Corolla Altis and Etios, hatchback Etios Liva and luxe sedans Camry and Camry Hybrid. It also sell premium SUV brands Prado, Land Cruiser and hybrid sedan Prius as completely built units. 

B D Narayankar

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