Eicher Motors on Monday said the ongoing strike at its Oragadam facility for Royal Enfield, its motorcycle arm, has resulted in loss of production of 10,000 motorcycles in September 2018. Eicher Motors made this revelation while releasing the September sales figure of Royal Enfield motorcycles.The workers have been on strike since September 24.

According to company data, it has produced a total of 71,662 motorcycles in September 2018 against 70,431 units in September 2017, registering a growth of 2%.

Meanwhile, hundreds of permanent workers of Royal Enfield continued their strike on Monday protesting against an eight-day pay cut as well as the management’s new instruction to hand over their mobile phones to the security staff before entering the vehicle manufacturing plant.

The agitating workers received their latest salary with a deduction of their eight days of wages. In its late evening notice to workers on Saturday, the company informed the workers that all the three shifts will resume from Sunday morning and advised employees to join the duty according to their shift timing.

The management even agreed not to demand any undertaking (about not taking part in disturbing activities in future).
However, when the workers of the first shift were about to enter the factory on Sunday, they were asked to hand over their mobile phones to the security.

Taken aback by the sudden development, the workers refused to deposit their phones citing concern over the privacy of their personal detail. They were ready to deposit their phones, provided the management gave them a dedicated locker. The management has not responded to the FE queries on Monday on this fresh development.

R Sampath, vice-president, Royal Enfield Workers’ Union, said: “We continued to protest against the management’s attitude even on Monday. Apart from 750-odd permanent workers, some of the trainees engaged in producing vehicles also joined us on Monday, and hardly any production took place today.”

“The workers were shocked to see a wage cut for eight days in the latest salary. The management cited ‘illegal strike’ as reason for salary cut. But it is not true. Our strike is legal and we had issued a notice to the management well in advance as per norms. So the salary cut is unwarranted, and hence we have decided to continue our strike,” he added.

The workers’ union also informed the labour department and concerned officials on this matter on Monday and “we hope the matter will be taken up on Wednesday. We will not give up our rights”, he added.

Meanwhile, workers’ union, affiliated to CITU, also continued its strike on Monday. The union has been on strike since September 21.

While 750-odd permanent workers are on strike, the company continued its production on Monday at much lesser pace with the help of trainee/contract workers. “A tripartite meeting will take place on Wednesday at the labour commissionerate, and we hope some senior official of the company will take part this time to resolve the issue.”