Toyota’s labour woes continue, employees refuse to join work

The eight-day lockout at Toyota’s plants in Bangalore ended on March 24; but it seems Toyota’s workers are averse to the company’s decision as they refuse to resume work. Toyota issued an official statement which said we began “limited production” in our plants.

"We have started limited operations with the help of non-unionised team members of whom the majority are engineers and supervisors," Toyota said in a statement.

Toyota ended the lockout with a condition that employees can resume work from Monday provided they signed a pact of good conduct. This didn’t go down well with the workers, as last week Union president Prasanna Kumar expressed disinterest in workers signing the terms laid by the company.

Explaining the workers stand to not sign the good conduct promise Prasanna said "It falsely implicates some employees as responsible" for misconduct that resulted in the lockout. 

Kumar also alleged that "Instead of resolving the issue amicably, management is misusing apprentices to make them work and has hired contract labour to do our job, which is skilled and involves stringent processes to ensure quality.”

However, Toyota denied all these claims made by the Union. 

It seems lifting the lockout hasn’t won the day for Toyota, the battle isn’t over yet. We hope a concrete solution is drawn soon between Toyota and the union it will hamper the company’s stand in the market and will also affect the livelihood of its employees. 

Source: ET