Maruti's Manesar plant to resume normal production on Saturday

"Normal production will start from Saturday as the strike has ended last night," a company official told PTI.As part of the agreement signed between the management and the representatives of the striking workers, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will reinstate all the sacked 11 employees and take a lenient approach on enforcing no-work-no-pay rule of eight day's salary cut for every single day of the stir.

The agreement, which was brokered by the Haryana government, however, did not make a mention on the main demand of formation of a union, thereby leading to the workers and the management making counter claims.

When contacted, newly formed Maruti Suzuki Employees Union's (MSEU) General Secretary Shiv Kumar said: "There is no mention of having the second union in the agreement as the management strictly does not have any role to play in setting up a union.

"As soon our application, which was submitted on June 3, gets approved by the Haryana Labour Department, MSEU will come into effect".

However, a senior company official said the core strike issue of second union has not been accepted by the management.

On June 4, the workers went on a strike demanding recognition of a new union -- MSEU -- formed by those working at the Manesar plant.

The workers said after taking a day's off today, they will be working on Sunday, which is usually a weekly off, to make up for production loss during the strike.

"We are taking off today and hold a puja at the plant on our victory. We will start work from tomorrow and also work on Sunday, which is our regular weekly holiday," Kumar said.

In the 13-day strike, the company lost production of 12,600 units, valued at about Rs 630 crore.

The market reacted positively to the news of the end of the strike, with the company's stock gaining nearly 4 per cent in the morning trade, but later in the afternoon it was trading 0.46 per cent down at Rs 1,184 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The strike ended late last evening after Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met MSI top executives, including Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi, two days ago in the National Capital.

Currently, the company has one recognised union, Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union, which is dominated by workers at the Gurgaon plant.

The Manesar plant rolls out about 1,200 units every day in two shifts. The factory produces hatchbacks Swift and A-Star and sedans DZiRE and SX4.