The workers of Maruti Suzuki in Gurgaon-Manesar have been carrying on their fight against the company since the huge attack on them in 2012. 546 permanent workers and 1,800 contract workers were dismissed, while around 147 workers were jailed on charges of instigating violence resulting in the death of a manager. Many of those acquitted have not been reinstated despite court orders to do so.
In dharnas and meetings held in September-October 2024, the workers conveyed the message that they will continue their struggle for justice. A positive development has been that the Maruti Suzuki Sangharsh Committee, which had been formed to fight for the rights of the employees dismissed in 2012, resolved to also take up the demands of temporary employees of the company.
The Sangharsh Committee has raised the demands of the non-permanent workers working in the factory for making them permanent. Their case is before the Labour Commissioner. The Management disputed the right of the Sangharsh Committee to represent the non-permanent workers. In response to this, the Sangharsh Committee gave a call to non-permanent workers to form their own union. On 5 January 2025, the new union of the Maruti Suzuki Non-Permanent Workers, Maruti Suzuki Asthayi Mazdoor Sangh, with more than 3000 member workers, was formed to fight for permanent jobs. The Sangh and the Sangharsh Committee are coordinating their struggle for justice.
The non-permanent workers of Maruti Suzuki have a charter of demands, which calls for the implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work and reiterates their right to be able to represent their interests. The struggle of these workers is in response to the diabolical schemes of the company to introduce several categories of workers in order that they may not be paid equal wages for the same work, and to keep them divided.
In 2012, Maruti Suzuki announced that it would stop hiring contract workers in core manufacturing areas after March 2013. The company abolished contract work but replaced contract workers with Fixed Term Employees. And even these Fixed Tern employees are divided into different categories with different wages though all these categories are doing the same work as the permanent workers. The categories of workers include: Apprentices, Temporary Worker (TW 1, 2, 3) and Casual Worker (C1 and C2) which the company calls “non regular workers. The non-permanent workers form 83 percent of the total workforce.
These workers are getting a salary in the range Rs.12,000 to Rs.30,000. The permanent workers get a salary of Rs 1,30,000 or more. The top managers, all Japanese, are getting annual salary in crores, with the MD drawing Rs.51 crore annually.
The Government of India has further added another group of workers called the MST (Multi-Skill Technician) workers under the scheme introduced by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the National Council for Vocational Training. As a part of this scheme, students are enrolled in the Maruti Suzuki Training Academy for a two year course in learning the trade of “Automotive Manufacturing”.
In actual fact, these MST workers (who are a part of the Non-Permanent Workers Union) are given barely one week’s training and put on the assembly line. They do the work that the permanent worker is supposed to do, under the same conditions, and the same shifts but with salaries or stipends which are less than statutory minimum wages. At the end of their “training” period, the MST workers have found their certificates have no value in the labour market and they are not equivalent to the diplomas given by the ITI’s.
The government and industry claim, under the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP), to make the Indian automotive industry a significant contributor to the “Skill India” Programme and make it one of the largest job creating engines in the Indian economy. They claim that the potential for creation of additional jobs, both direct and indirect, in the Indian automotive industry over the next decade is 65 million.
However, the claims of increased employment creation through the Skill India programme have been exposed to be a fraud. While the company claims that it has created three jobs, in fact it is one worker who is repeatedly employed with gaps of a few months under the Fixed Term Contract as TW 1, 2 and then 3, without guarantee for a permanent job. This is the reality behind the company’s claims of promoting “numerical flexibility of the workforce.”
Typically, a young graduate from one of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) would have to qualify in a written examination to be a trainee in Maruti. He is supposed to go through a period of training, but in fact he does not get any actual hands-on training. After a week of lectures on the history of the company and on the “hard work and punctuality” expected of him, he is sent to one of the company’s plants to work on the shop floor. After a year, he is sent home. He gets a call after three months or so to join as TW 1 (Temporary Worker 1). Then again, after working for a few months, his contract is ended and he is jobless, hoping to get a permanent job in Maruti Suzuki. After a wait of a few months, he is sent a message that he can join the company as a temporary worker, this time as TW 2. After a few months, he is laid off and waits again to join as TW 3. After nearly one year, he gets a call asking him to take the examination for the post of a permanent worker. If he fails to clear the exam, he is not informed how he has been assessed or what his score is. According to the company records, Maruti Suzuki had employed three workers when, in fact, they have employed one worker three times over, as a non-permanent worker.