Royal Enfield factory workers begin striking again

CHENNAI: Workers at an Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield two wheeler production site near Chennai struck work over what trade union sources refer to “victimisation of union representatives by transfers,” besides lack of progress in negotiations over wage hike and redesignating certain employees as permanent staff.The Working People’s Trade Union Council had issued a strike notice on February 12 (Tuesday), but the strike began the next day at 3 p.m. after the management transferred key persons in the union, according to R Sampath, Vice-President of the union.Informing the stock exchanges today of the strike, Royal Enfield said it remains “deeply committed, as always in the past, to maintaining respectful relationships with all employees. We believe an engaged workforce and cordial industrial relations, create a culture of excellence where all employees are proud of their contributions to the organisation.”The management refers to the strike as illegal, and that the majority of the workforce is still committed to production: “It is unfortunate that a certain section of our workforce has resorted to an illegal strike at our Oragadam plant in Chennai despite the company’s best efforts and positive intentions. We have been working closely with our workforce and have undertaken various constructive and confidence building initiatives. Currently, a majority of the workforce continues to report for work at the Oragadam plant. Our other manufacturing facilities, including our plants at Vallam Vadagaland and Tiruvottiyur, continue to remain fully operational. We are focused on resolving all issues in an amicable manner while keeping the best interests of the organization and our workforce in mind.”This is the second time recently that Royal Enfield workers are striking work. In its December sales update, Royal Enfield said strike activity between September 24 and November 12 resulted in production loss of 28000 motorcycles. The strike in the third quarter of FY18-19 arrived at a time the two wheeler manufacturer was facing a challenging period in the market. In the December quarter results update, Eicher Motors MD and CEO Siddhartha Lal said: “The latter half of 2018 was a challenging period for the two-wheeler industry in India. Factors like increased insurance requirements, rising raw material costs and the subsequent price increase due to regulatory safety requirements impacted the momentum of the industry. Royal Enfield’s market share recorded improvement on a sequential basis, while volumes in the quarter were impacted. We believe this is a temporary impact due to a price reset.”

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2TOpMYV

SHARE

• 
• 
• 
• 
•