Strike at Bajaj unit continues as talks fail to bring any solution

The Bajaj Auto management and its union on Friday came to the negotiating table in a bid to end the four-day-old strike by over 1,500 workers at the Chakan plant demanding wage revision and better working conditions apart from a hefty paring of the companies shares with employees. The preliminary round of talks, however, failed to bring any tangible solution, the union sources said.

Over 1,500 workers of Bajaj's Chakan facility are on strike since Tuesday, bringing production to a complete halt. "The union leaders and management today held talks in an effort to end the strike. But the negotiations did not result in any concrete solution," Bajaj Auto Chakan plant union sources told PTI in Mumbai. Rebutting the reported claim by the management that some workers had joined back work, union sources said all employees including the contract and temporary workers, are united on their resolve and "no production is taking place at all."

The Chakan plant rolls out a range of premium bikes, including the Pulsar, the two KTM Duke models, and the Avenger among others. The company was producing around 3,000 bikes a day till April but in the last two months it lowered production to 2,500 a day as demand has been on the slide, they said, adding, "in the past four days not a single unit has been produced." Bajaj officials were not available for comments. The workers demand include a 25 per cent wage hike, making contract workers permanent employees apart from taking back suspended and transferred workers in the Chakan plant.

The union also wants the company to issue 500 shares each to all the uninoned workers at a nominal price of Rs 1 per share which are quoting over Rs 1,900 apiece through an employee stock option scheme, a demand which was outrightly rejected by the management. Bajaj shares rose 4.7 per cent to Rs 1,923.95 on the BSE, whose benchmark Sensex rallied 2.75 per cent or 520 points on a slew of positive developments, marking its highest single-day rally in 19 months.

Wage revision apart, they also want to revoke the suspension of two employees pending enquiry and bring back the three employees who were "arbitrarily" transferred to the Aurangabad unit.