Even as its wage-revision dispute with the management lies pending with the Bombay High Court, the workers? union of Bajaj Auto’s Chakan plant has once again threatened to go on an indefinite strike from April 28 if stock options are not allotted to them.
The issue of stock options for workers at concessional rates was first raked by the Chakan union ? Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatana ? in June last year, when it stopped work for 50 days. Work resumed on August 14 after managing director Rajiv Bajaj threatened that he would shift around 50% production of the Chakan plant to Waluj and Pantnagar. However, Bajaj was open to wage revision for the workers.
Reiterating the demand, VKS has asked that all workers of Bajaj Auto should be given the option to subscribe to equity shares at a discounted rate of R10 per share, and that each workman be allowed to purchase 500 shares.
The union notice also demands that of the mandatory 2% profit for CSR activities, around 50% should be allocated towards the development of tribals, their malnutrition and other downtrodden classes.
?The remaining 50% should be allocated for the education fund of workers? children,” the union notice said. To monitor CSR activities, a joint committee should be established with two representatives from the management and two from Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatana,? the union has demanded. That the company should establish a museum in the name of Jamnalal Bajaj, with his 30-feet statue at the Chakan plant within a year from the date of notice, was another demand.
Kailash J Zanzari, VP, manufacturing, motorcycle, Bajaj Auto, confirmed receiving a work stoppage notice, stating it was unfortunate as the matter was under litigation. ?The workers could have waited till the court hearing,? he said.
On CSR spend, Zanzari said the company didn?t need any direction from the union. He also ruled out any disruption in production while maintaining that the demand for stock options would not be considered.
Dilip Pawar, president of the VKS union, said that when workers returned to work last year, they were promised that talks would be held and they would arrive at a wage settlement, but that has not happened and, instead, the company was harassing workers with 20 of them suspended.
Bajaj Auto manufactures the Pulsar, KTM and Avenger brands of motorcycles at Chakan. During last year’s strike, the company had shifted part of production to the Aurangabad plant.
A wage hike of around R10,000 was announced by the company in February 2014, but it was rejected by the workers. The matter is currently sub judice in the Bombay High Court, where the next hearing is slated for April 23.