Toyota deadlock ends, staff rejoins

Bengaluru: Ending an over month long stalemate, employees of Toyota Kirloskar Motor resumed work on Tuesday at the company’s two Bidadi plants near here after the Karnataka government asked both the management and the workers union to restore normalcy in operations.

“We have resumed work on Tuesday as per the orders of Karnataka government; about 2,000 employees have reported to work in the first shift at 5:45 am, another group has reported to second shift at 2:45pm,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees Union general secretary R. Satish said.

However, he said that they will continue to contest with management on issues including wages and suspension of 30 employees.

The 4,200 member union at its general body meeting held on Monday evening had decided to resume work from Tuesday following the Karnataka government’s order to both the management and the union to restore normalcy in operations.

The firm in response to a query said, “All workmen have come to work as planned.” Toyota’s operations had been affected ever since the union demanded a wage hike of Rs4,000 as against RS3,050 proposed by the management. Toyota Kirloskar Motor, a joint venture of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Pune-based Kirloskar, had on March 16 declared a lockout, after talks between the management and union over wages failed.