<p>“The decision has been taken considering the safety of employees, machineries and installations, as a result of workmen associates of the plant resorting to physical intimidation of managers and officers of the plant during their ‘go-slow’ strike and subsequent ‘tool down’ strike,” the release said.<br /><br />According to Bosch, the workmen at the plant had been negotiating their long-term wage settlement with the company since the expiry of the last settlement on December 31, 2008 and the recognised union submitted a new Charter of Demands on July 29, 2009. After several meetings with the company management the unhappy union declared a go-slow strike with effect from February 13, 2010 and continued till date. <br /><br />No notice given<br /><br />The employees, however, demanded that the lockout be prohibited under the Industrial Disputes Act as they charged the management with failing to provide mandatory 10 days notice to them before declaring a lockout.<br /><br />“We were with the management yesterday evening and they promised they would fix a time for the meeting today morning and suddenly they decided to declare a lockout at 22.30 hours. We will approach Labour Commissioner Ravishankar and Labour Minister B N Bachchegowda in this regard.” Employees Association President Prasanna Kumar said.<br /><br />Kumar said they had held 14 rounds of talks with the management over the implementation of their charter of demands in the last one year. But when their negotiations failed, they decided to adopt ‘work to rule’ policy.<br /><br />The employees’ charter of demands includes 25 per cent salary hike on the basic pay, enhancement of variable DA, total medical reimbursement as against partial payment of medical expenses which is being done at present.<br /></p>
<p>“The decision has been taken considering the safety of employees, machineries and installations, as a result of workmen associates of the plant resorting to physical intimidation of managers and officers of the plant during their ‘go-slow’ strike and subsequent ‘tool down’ strike,” the release said.<br /><br />According to Bosch, the workmen at the plant had been negotiating their long-term wage settlement with the company since the expiry of the last settlement on December 31, 2008 and the recognised union submitted a new Charter of Demands on July 29, 2009. After several meetings with the company management the unhappy union declared a go-slow strike with effect from February 13, 2010 and continued till date. <br /><br />No notice given<br /><br />The employees, however, demanded that the lockout be prohibited under the Industrial Disputes Act as they charged the management with failing to provide mandatory 10 days notice to them before declaring a lockout.<br /><br />“We were with the management yesterday evening and they promised they would fix a time for the meeting today morning and suddenly they decided to declare a lockout at 22.30 hours. We will approach Labour Commissioner Ravishankar and Labour Minister B N Bachchegowda in this regard.” Employees Association President Prasanna Kumar said.<br /><br />Kumar said they had held 14 rounds of talks with the management over the implementation of their charter of demands in the last one year. But when their negotiations failed, they decided to adopt ‘work to rule’ policy.<br /><br />The employees’ charter of demands includes 25 per cent salary hike on the basic pay, enhancement of variable DA, total medical reimbursement as against partial payment of medical expenses which is being done at present.<br /></p>