Toyota agrees to lift lockout from March 24

Ending the five-day long impasse following strike by workers demanding wage hike, Toyota Kirloskar Motor management today agreed to lift the lockout of its two plants at Bidadi near here on March 24 after government's conciliatory efforts.

"The company has decided to lift the lockout on 24th," Additional Labour Commissioner J T Jinkalappa told PTI, after talks with the management and the union to break the impasse.

To a question whether there is any precondition to lift the lockout, he said "the management has put some conditions like they want employees to maintain discipline...."Asked if any consensus had been reached on the wage issue, he said "lifting lockout was our priority, others are all secondary.....we can settle that matter later."

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp of Japan, had on March 16 declared a lockout, following the failure of talks between the management and the union over wage negotiation.

The union is demanding a wage hike of Rs 4,000 as against Rs 3,050 proposed by the management.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor in a statement said, "The Company has submitted to the Deputy Labour Commissioner that considering the inclination and in the interest of majority law abiding team members, we have decided to lift the lock out implemented vide notice dated March 16."

"Consequent to our above decision, the team members are welcome to resume work with effect from March 24 after signing a simple undertaking on good conduct," it added.

The company has agreed to lift the lockout on 24 March, but they are talking about some conditions, Toyota Kirloskar Workers Union (TKMEU) General Secretary R Satish said.

"We will have to go through the conditions in detail, we will also have to take legal opinion on these conditions.....; we will take a final call at our union's general body meeting on Saturday about next step," he added.

Satish also said "we have got some information from media about company's statement regarding suspending few of our workers....; we haven't received anything officially till now."

The company said in an earlier statement, "A decision to suspend some of the members pending inquiry, for serious misconduct, was taken earlier in the week. This is in line with the company's rules and regulations."