Bangalore: Toyota-Kirloskar Motors on Sunday declared an indefinite lockout at its factory near Bangalore after a strike by workers entered the third day.
The management had to take this decision after 300 workers called a strike protesting against the dismissal of three co-workers.
The management says the strike instigated by the Employees Union is illegal. About 1,550 of the factory's 2,350 workers are affiliated with the union.
Employees crowded outside the factory all of Saturday, shouting slogans. Later, they also provoked other workmen to stall work and take to violence.
The dispute is now pending before the Deputy Labour Commissioner.
"We have dismissed them from the services of the company so suddenly the workers went on strike. The strike was called without any prior notice to the management. This has put us into a lot of inconvenience and there is loss of production also," Manager for Public Affairs at Toyota Kirloskar Motors R Shankar said.
Company officials will meet union leaders on Monday. Workers at the plant had gone on strike in 2002 also in a dispute that lasted two months, Shankar said.
This plant, which started production in December 1999 has a capacity of 60,000 units annually.
Japan's Toyota is the majority stakeholder in this venture with Kirloskar. Several Toyota cars like Innova are manufactured at this plant.
In a similar incident in July last year, hundreds of striking workers at the motorcycle and scooters unit of Honda Motor Co. had clashed with the police in Gurgaon resulting in huge production losses.
Comments
0 comment