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Maruti workers boycott work, unrest worsens

Nearly 4,700 workers at India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd boycotted work on Thursday after nearly two weeks of unrest over improved incentives, a senior union official said.

Members of the Maruti Udyog Employees Union have staged daily two-hour strikes since October 3 to press for pension benefits and other incentives.

"This morning, the management wanted the workers to sign an undertaking before letting them into the factory. Signing it would have meant losing our fundamental rights and so none of our 4,700 members have gone into the plant," MUEU treasurer G K Walia said.

"We haven't called for a strike. In fact, we had come prepared to work."

Union officials said the undertaking forbade workers from carrying out any agitation, which was unacceptable to them.

A company spokesman said there was no strike at the plant and added the firm would issue a statement later in the day.

MUL, an joint venture between the Indian government and Japan's Suzuki Motors Corp, is the largest carmaker in the country with its factory in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi producing 1,500 cars daily.

The firm has a market share of over 50 per cent, down from over 70 per cent until about two years ago following the entry of Korea's Hyundai and Daewoo Motors and India's TELCO.

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