The employees union, at a 45-minute meeting with Bakht here, has sought a ``written assurance'' from the minister on their demands of job protection and non-divestment of the government's stake of 50 per cent in the joint venture with Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC).

Bakht, however, told the union representatives that their intervention on the agreement reached between the two partners was ``unwarranted''.Industry ministry officials indicated after the meeting that the issue is more or less resolved.

Maruti's Employees Union, which has called a day's strike on July 11, later met labour minister Satya Narayan Jatiya in this connection. The strike was to protest the out-of-court agreement between the government and SMC that solved the managerial dispute in the Rs 8,600-crore company.

``A finaldecision on the strike will be taken later,'' the general secretary of the worker's union, Mathew Abraham, said after meeting the minister with a delegation of about 20 workers.

``The minister gave us an oral assurance to protect our interests and assured that he would not be a party to exploit India. "He assured us that the government would not divest the stake. But we want a written assurance,'' Abraham said.

The workers would give a letter to the minister on Monday officially stating their demand, Abraham said. Heavy industry secretary P Shankar, joint secretary and Maruti director Pradip Kumar and company managing director RSSLN Bhaskarudu also attended the meeting.

The Maruti management told the union representatives earlier this week that their proposed strike was illegal and could lead to pay cuts. A day-long strike by the MUL union in 1995 had resulted in a wage cut for eight days, which was later challenged in court.

The union has been seeking a meeting with Bakht since the agreement in Junethat halved the term of haskarudu to which Suzuki reciprocated by dropping the case against governmen at the international court of arbitration.