Lockout at Manesar not to affect dispatch operations: Maruti

[1]

Maruti Suzuki will continue to dispatch cars from its stockyard at the Manesar plant to dealers across the country although it has declared a lockout at the factory.

"The dispatch operations won't be affected and will continue from Manesar," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) chief operating officer (Production) M.M. Singh said.

The stockyard at Manesar plant has inventory of about 26,000 units at present, he added. The company had resumed dispatching cars from the stockyard to various dealers across the country on Friday.

On Wednesday, violence broke out at the plant where a senior official was burnt alive and 100 others were injured.

The Manesar stockyard is also used for delivering cars produced at the company's Gurgaon plant to various dealers across the country.

Yesterday, the violence-hit company declared an indefinite lockout at its Manesar plant, the first such instance in its history, but firmly ruled out the possibility of shifting operations to Gujarat.

"There is now a lockout. To me, what is more important is safety of my colleagues than producing some cars to make some money," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) chairman R.C. Bhargava had said at a press conference here.

Asked how long the lockout will continue he said, "Maruti is not closed...we will be very inefficient if we take six months. I don't think we are that bad...we will start at Manesar."

The company also said it was completely overtaken by the 'Tsunami-like' violence that it had not anticipated and announced they would not employ casual labour from March next year in production related operations, although they would be hired for 'non-valued added' work like cleaning, security, canteen services, loading and unloading.

MSI also said hiring of the casual workers would be done directly by its HR division, instead of outsourcing it to a contractor as was done earlier.