Rioting Maruti Workers Face Murder Charges After Manager Death
Bloomberg News
July 19, 2012
Security staff survey damage to a factory building caused by rioting workers at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s Manesar plant, near New Delhi. Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg
Indian authorities threatened to charge all 3,000 Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL) union workers at a plant after a riot that the labor union says began when a supervisor insulted an employee because of his caste.
Authorities will press charges of murder and attempted murder against all rioting workers at Maruti’s Manesar plant because they engaged in a mob attack that led to a person’s death, Maheswar Dayal, deputy commissioner of police, said in an interview yesterday. The police have arrested 99 workers and deployed 1,200 officers to secure the area, Director General of Police Ranjiv Singh Dalal said. Indian police occupied the suspended factory, which accounts for about 40 percent of Maruti’s total capacity, as they begin investigating the company’s most violent labor clash. Maruti and Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269) shares tumbled as the violence revived concerns about recurring labor disputes at the Indian carmaker, which suffered through a 33-day labor strike last year that drove down profit.
“I think it may take 8-to-10 days to resume operations at Manesar,” said Umesh Karne, an analyst with BRICS Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “The concern is that with this shutdown, the majority of Maruti’s diesel car production may be hit as the Swift and DZire’s diesel models are made at Manesar.” A person was burnt to death and at least 70 managers at the factory were injured, K.K. Sindhu, police commissioner for the Gurgaon district, said in a phone interview. Maruti identified the deceased as Awanish Kumar Dev, a human resources general manager. Suzuki, which owns a majority stake in the Indian carmaker, said production facilities weren’t damaged by this week’s riot.
‘Crazy Scene’
“This is a crazy scene of violence,” Dalal said. “There are skirmishes between workers and management everywhere, but this kind of violence will not be tolerated.” At the factory, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of New Delhi, trucks rolled in yesterday carrying police, who formed a security cordon around the plant. Two dozen private guards manned the gates of the closed factory, which only had police inside. Maruti shares tumbled 8.9 percent, its biggest drop in almost two years, to 1,117.30 rupees in Mumbai. Suzuki fell to its lowest close since February 2009 in Tokyo, dropping 3.8 percent to 1,451 yen. Both Maruti and the union blamed each other for the incident.
Caste Insult
According to Maruti, the dispute began July 18 after a worker beat up a supervisor on the shop floor. The workers’ union then prevented management from taking disciplinary action, blocking managers from leaving the factory after work, Maruti Suzuki said. Workers attacked managers after talks to resolve the dispute failed, with workers setting property on fire, ransacking offices and damaging facilities, according to the statement. Two Japanese executives were hospitalized, though neither is in critical condition, said Ei Mochizuki, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Suzuki. Damages were restricted to offices, not production facilities, Mochizuki said. The workers’ union said it was keen to have a dialogue with the company to resolve the matter and that workers were attacked by bouncers working for Maruti while discussions were ongoing with guild leaders.
Pointing Fingers
The incident started after a supervisor abused a worker and made derogatory remarks about his lower caste, known as Dalit, Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union President Ram Meher Singh said in an e-mailed statement. The company suspended the worker instead of taking action against the supervisor, Singh said. Maruti spokesman Puneet Dhawan couldn’t be reached by telephone and didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the labor union’s statement. Production at the factory, which makes Maruti Suzuki’s Swift compact cars, had to be halted, the company said. Output at the larger Gurgaon plant continued normally, it said.
The company’s factory in Manesar, built in 2007, has a capacity to produce 550,000 cars annually, about 40 percent of Maruti’s total capacity of 1.45 million cars, according to the company’s website. Manesar is 25 kilometers south of Gurgaon. The company is building a third unit at Manesar that is due to be completed in 2013, with a capacity to produce 250,000 additional units.
Industrial Hub
In October, a labor strike in Manesar halted output of Swift compact cars. Workers also staged strikes at parts maker Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd., causing production to be halted at Maruti’s factory in Gurgaon, also near the capital. The strike ended after an agreement was reached between management, workers and the state government. The strike cost the company more than 40,000 units of production, Maruti said.
The Manesar-Gurgaon region is an industrial hub that is home to factories of Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL), Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt., and auto parts suppliers Sona Koyo Steering Systems, and Rico Auto Industries Ltd. (RAI). In the past few years, there have been strikes at factories belonging to Rico, Honda and Hero as workers stopped work to demand higher pay and permanent employee status for contract employees. In 2008, the managing director of Graziano Trasmissioni India Ltd. was beaten to death after a group of dismissed employees turned violent, police said.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/maruti-unrest-manesar-factory-idINDEE86I02320120719
India’s Maruti shares sink after riot shuts car plant
(Reuters) – Manesar, Haryana | Jul 19, 2012
A deadly riot at a factory of Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.NS) shut the plant on Thursday and inflicted the biggest loss on its share price in almost two years. Hundreds of police secured the 550,000-vehicle per year factory in Manesar, Haryana, and arrested 90 people after a mob tore through the plant on Wednesday, smashing property and burning parts of the facility beyond repair. On Thursday, police combed through CCTV footage and interviewed witnesses as they searched for those responsible for the violence, in which a manager was killed and scores of employees were injured.
“We saw fire coming out of a nearby office and gradually it spread,” said a senior company official, who declined to be named. “(Workers) destroyed company-owned and our own cars. Police had to escort us out,” he said, speaking from a hospital after treatment for head and rib injuries and a broken hand. Labour unrest at the factory, where the union has accused India’s biggest car manufacturer of anti-worker and anti-union activities, cost the company more than $500 million in lost production in 2011. The factory, which accounts for around a third of Maruti’s total output, will remain closed on Friday because of the investigations, Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T), which controls the carmaker, said in a statement.
Shares in Maruti, whose sales fell 11 percent in the fiscal year to March, partly as a result of the protracted strikes, fell 8.9 percent on Thursday, their biggest daily percentage drop since July 26, 2010. Suzuki shares closed down 3.8 percent in Tokyo, at their lowest level since February 2009. Wednesday’s trouble flared after a disciplinary incident against one employee. Company officials say workers began to attack senior management during discussions, while the union said its representatives were attacked first. Human resources manager Awanish Kumar Dev was burned to death during the riot, and the Japanese manager of the factory was also attacked, the company said.
“Armed with iron rods and door beams of cars, the mob spread out in groups in the factory area and targeted supervisors, managers and executives… rendering many of their victims bleeding and unconscious,” Maruti said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with police and government authorities in the investigation.
SPECIAL TEAM
The Haryana government has formed a special team to probe the riot, with officers trawling through footage from the factory and interviewing managers and workers’ representatives. “There will be a thorough investigation. It is a very serious matter,” Haryana police spokesman S.A.S. Zaidi told Reuters. “The investigation circle is very big.” Ei Mochizuki, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Suzuki Motor Corp, said two Japanese staff had been hospitalised after the riot. Iron rods and other sharp tools lay scattered outside the factory gate on Thursday, next to a burned out security building, as 1,200 police officers secured the site, around 40 km (25 miles) south of New Delhi.
Fifty management personnel and 9 police officers were injured in the clashes, said Maheshwar Dayal, deputy commissioner of police in Gurgaon. “We will make more arrests soon,” he told reporters outside the factory. Those arrested could be charged with murder, attempted murder and arson, said K.K. Sindhu, commissioner of police in Gurgaon. Maruti and the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) said the violence stemmed from a disciplinary incident involving one employee.
“To resolve the issue amicably, members of the senior management met the union. During the talks, the workers attacked the members of the senior management, executives and managers,” Maruti said in a statement late on Wednesday. MSWU president Ram Meher accused the company of “anti-worker and anti-union activities” in a statement on Thursday. The union is keen to talk with the company and government officials to resolve the dispute, Meher added.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gurgaon/Maruti-HR-man-beaten-burned-alive/Article1-891804.aspx
Maruti HR executive beaten, burned alive
Hindustan Times
Manesar/Gurgaon, July 19, 2012
The body found at carmaker Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory after the mob violence on Wednesday was identified as that of senior human resource executive Awanish Kumar Dev, 51. Dev was assaulted with iron rods and left unconscious to be burnt alive, the police said. The post-mortem on Thursday revealed that Dev suffered 100% burns and his legs were fractured. He is survived by his wife Superna Prasad, who works with the defence ministry, and a son who is a class 12 student.
Hospital staff move the covered body of Awanish Kumar Dev, human resources manager at Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, from a hospital morgue in Gurgaon. Reuters
An eyewitness told HT that workers assaulted Dev when negotiations over the suspension of a worker were taking place in the conference room. “A mob of workers barged into the conference room where talks were underway and started assaulting the executives. Dev was trapped and assaulted by iron roads and left to be burnt in the room,” said labour contractor Rakesh Chaudhary.
Damaged furniture of Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant following a clash between between workers and management. PTI
The condition of an executive who is in the ICU of a private hospital is critical. More than 50 company executives, including two Japanese nationals, workers and policemen were injured in the rioting. The police have arrested 99 workers for the violence. The factory was shut on Thursday though the company claimed there was no damage to the production facility. “We will shortly announce our decision on the next steps with regard to resuming operations in these facilities,” the company said in a statement. “By any account this is not an industrial relations problem. Rather, it is an orchestrated act of mob violence at a time when operations had been normal over the past many months.”
Fearing arrest, most of the workers went underground but a statement from the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union accused the company for perpetrating violence by calling in hundreds of bouncers on its payroll to attack the workers. “We have the workers’ and the company’s welfare in mind and have worked towards it after the resolution of the dispute last year and to blame the current violence on us is unjust,” the statement said. Meanwhile, the Japanese embassy issued a statement deploring the violence that led to Dev’s death.
Riot Hits Big India Auto Maker
A Maruti Suzuki plant was closed after a fire and a workers’ riot.
NEW DELHI — India’s largest auto maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., was hit by violence as workers at one of its auto factories attacked supervisors and started a fire that killed a company official and injured nine policemen as well as nearly 100 managers, including two Japanese expatriates. Wednesday’s riot left parts of the assembly plant charred and strewn with glass from smashed windows and guarded by about 1,200 police called in to prevent any recurrence of the violence. Police said they intend to charge rioters in the death of a plant human resources manager. A Maruti spokesman said the unrest began Wednesday after the workers’ union demanded the reinstatement of a worker who had been suspended for beating up a supervisor. An injured executive at the hospital where he was being treated described the attack as unprovoked.
“The workers grabbed whatever they could, split up in small groups and attacked us,” he said. The Maruti executive, who declined to be identified, suffered a broken elbow and injuries to his head, ribs, and legs. In a statement, the company insisted the incidents were “not an industrial relations problem in the nature of management-worker differences over issues of wages or working conditions,” but an “orchestrated act of mob violence.” Police have said workers who participated face murder or attempted murder charges. Workers involved couldn’t be contacted. The plant employs 3,200 assembly workers, about half permanent and half contract workers. Intermittent strikes at the local unit of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. have highlighted the tense relationship between the company’s management and the workers. The latest incidents follow a string of protests that hit the same factory in Manesar, in the northern state of Haryana, for much of last year.
The strikes aren’t unique to Maruti and walkouts involving disputes over wages and working conditions at several companies have struck other companies in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy, including Nestlé India Ltd., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Coal India Ltd., Bosch Ltd. and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Ltd. Shares in Maruti, India’s largest car maker by sales, slumped 8.9% on Thursday to close at 1,117.30 rupees ($20.20) on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The slide was the steepest loss in nearly two years. A prolonged shutdown at the Manesar plant would hurt Maruti as the company makes its highest-selling diesel cars—the Swift hatchback and the Swift Dzire sedan—there. It also makes the SX4 sedan and the A-Star small car in Manesar, where about 1,700 cars are produced per day. Partly because of labor unrest, in the fiscal year through March, Maruti’s net profit fell 29% to 16.35 billion rupees. Its vehicle sales fell nearly 11% to 1.13 million units.
Umesh Karne, an analyst at Mumbai-based Brics Securities Ltd., said the impact on Maruti will depend on how long the Manesar factory remains shut. “Looking at the current situation, it appears that the factory will remain closed” for at least two to three days, Mr. Karne said. “Even if the factory reopens, there will be simmering tension between workers and the management. So, it is better for both the parties to sit down and talk.” D.L. Sachdev, national secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, said in a conference call with analysts that Maruti’s contract workers are paid about one-third of that of regular workers. He declined to elaborate.
Nikhil Gulati/The Wall Street Journal
People outside the Maruti Suzuki factory in Manesar, Thursday.
“The discontent among regular and contract workers has been going on. Unfortunately, the management hasn’t been able to resolve the issue,” he said. The Haryana police have taken control of the Manesar plant and have set up a special team to investigate the violent incidents, Maheshwar Dayal, deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime, told reporters. Mr. Dayal said 88 workers have been arrested so far. Maruti said the dead worker is Awanish Kumar Dev, general manager in charge of human resources at the Manesar plant. “Such acts of violence—preplanned, unprovoked and gruesome—have implications beyond one company or region,” the company said. “They are negative trigger for existing companies and regions across the country, as also for prospective investors and job seekers.”
Police have formed a special team to investigate violence at a factory of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. in the northern state of Haryana, that has led to the death of one company official and injured nine policemen as well as 50 workers, senior police officials said Thursday. Maheshwar Dayal, deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime, said the team, comprising six inspectors, will be headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravindra Tomar. Mr. Tomar was injured when a mob of 3,000 workers attacked the police Wednesday.
Mr. Dayal also said the dead worker is believed to be Avinash Kumar, the human resources head of the Maruti factory at Manesar in Haryana. Another official in the office of the Gurgaon commissioner of police and D. L. Sachdev, national secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, said also that the dead worker is an official of the Maruti management. “The police have taken control of the Maruti plant,” the police official, who declined to be named, said.
http://www.firstpost.com/business/unanswered-questions-in-marutis-manesar-violence-383646.html
Unanswered questions in Maruti’s Manesar violence
New Delhi: Fearing for their lives and careers, the leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) at the Manesar facility have gone underground. Through most of the day, union general secretary Sarabjeet Singh’s phone remained switched off even as president Ram Mehar Singh mailed a signed statement this afternoon alleging that the Maruti management had unleashed bouncers who beat up workers.
It is interesting to note that though the violent clashes on Wednesday (18 July) may not have been triggered by impending wage negotiations, the workers under MSWU have been demanding a five-fold hike! Since a permanent worker takes home about Rs 18,000 a month (including perks), this would mean each worker has demanded close to Rs 90,000 every month in wages! Maruti officials said that it was a normal practice for workers to inflate their wage demands and then negotiate with much lesser wages. But even then, a semi-literate shop floor worker drawing close to Rs 1 lakh every month is surprising.
Assault weapons? Image courtesy MSI
Also, another question begs an answer: how did the workers, who were apparently working peacefully till the altercation began with a supervisor, suddenly turn into a blood-thirsty mob? Various versions of what happened yesterday abound but company officials alleged that perhaps the workers came prepared to unleash violence. These officials alleged that when the altercation between the supervisor and one worker remained unresolved, workers rushed to executives’ cars parked outside and quickly extracted what is known as a side-impact beam from the doors of these cars. Though this beam is meant to lessen the impact of a collision in the car, workers – who themselves stand on the shopfloor assembling car doors and are quite familiar with car parts – used it to hit management executives on their heads.
Another version points to workers actually getting steel rods and lathis in tractor trollies inside the factory premises when the situation got ugly towards the evening. No one was able to explain how tractor trollies laden with lathis and rods could enter the factory without guards intervening. Did the leaders of the previous union, which led a successful strike in three rounds last year, instigate the violence yesterday? Company officials said no outsider was involved and all the violence was unleashed by workers who were already inside the plant. But there is every possibility that national trade unions, affiliated to various political parties, would jump in and participate in this standoff between workers and management, just like last year.
These are pics of a safety door beam used in cars to protect occupants. They were removed from material trolleys and used on Senior managers
Investor sources told Firstpost that some Mumbai-based equity analysts held a conference-call with the AITUC General Secretary DL Sachdeva on their concerns over labour trouble at Maruti. During this call, Sachdeva—who is not overtly connected with the present situation—said that the treatment of contract workers by Maruti was not fair. He apparently said that there were 3,000 contract workers at Manesar (against 2,000-and-odd permanent workers) who are being paid a third of the wages a permanent worker draws. The contract workers are also liable to be fired at will and these twin issues have not allowed any peace to workers since the last strike. On their part, analysts expressed concern that no permanent solution has been found to Maruti’s labour troubles till date.
Also, by the evening today, there were unconfirmed rumours of two Japanese officials of Maruti having succumbed to their injuries sustained in yesterday’s violence (or being in a critical state) but the company denied this, saying they are injured and are being treated in hospital. An HR Manager, an Indian, has already succumbed to his injuries. And contrary to earlier reports, widespread arson has meant that a large part of the Manesar assembly shopfloor is gutted. So even if relations between workers and management were to normalise shortly, repairing the assembly shopfloor could take a long time. Maruti manufactures its second best-selling model—the Swift—at Manesar and its festival season hopes could well be dashed unless production commences swiftly.
http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/companies/maruti-unrest-gm-hr-charred-to-death-100-workers-arrested_56107.html
Maruti unrest: 100 workers arrested; SIT begins probe
Manesar: July 20, 2012,
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe labour unrest and fire incident in Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant, in which General Manager Human Resources was burnt alive and 100 employees were injured. The SIT, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravinder Tomar and including six inspector ranked officials, will probe the incideat Manesar plant, Haryana Police said Thursday. A tense calm prevailed on Thursday as the plant was shut following large scale arson in which Awanish Kumar Dev, HR GM, was burnt beyond recognition while 100 others were injured. Kumar’s body was identified by his family Thursday and the company alleged that the violence was an orchestrated act of mob, which has implications beyond one company or region.
100 employees, who were arrested, were produced before a local magistrate who remanded them to 14 days judicial custody. They have been accused of various charges including rioting with weapons, murder, attempt to murder, unlawful assembly, assault and trespass. The violence in which several executives, managers and supervisors were attacked and office facilities, security office and fire safety section gutted arose out of an alleged casteist remarks by an official against a worker. The worker allegedly beat him up following which he was suspended and that triggered the large scale violence. Haryana government and police pledged to take stringent action against those responsible for violence. Maruti Suzuki said the violence is a negative negative trigger for existing companies and regions across the country as also for prospective investors and job seekers.
The firm, which witnessed strikes on three occasions last year, has already announced plans to set up a new plant in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore, a move which was interpreted as coming against the backdrop of violence in the region. Gurgaon, an industrial hub neighbouring the national capital, was the scene of large scale violence by workers and outside forces at the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India’s unit and subsequent strikes in other units. Rejecting the company’s charge, Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) accused the management of calling in hundreds of bouncers on its payroll to attack the workers. It said instead of taking action against the supervisor who was involved in a scuffle with a shop floor worker “the management immediately suspended the worker concerned without any investigation”.
“When the workers along with union representatives went to meet HR to demand against the supervisor and revoke the unjust suspension of the worker, the HR officials flatly refused to hear our arguments, and it was in no mood to resolve the issue amicably,” MSWU President Ram Meher said in a statement. The union, however, said it was ready for a dialogue with the management and wanted to resolve the issue amicably. Taking a serious view of the violence, Haryana Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery said a special investigating team has been formed under Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gurgaon, Ravinder Tomar, to investigate the matter. He gave an assurance that no one would be spared for taking law into his hands and resorting to violence.
Haryana DGP Ranjeev Singh Dalal visited the plant and said the police has taken over the entire plant to maintain law and order. “We are going to take stern action against the guilty,” he told reporters, adding nothing can justify this kind of violence. He said the police have been on the field since last night to nab the culprits. But the ring leaders have run away and were absconding. Dalal said he would camp in Gurgaon till the matter is resolved. An anguished India Inc condemned the violence in the Maruti Suzuki premises and said frequent incidents of labour unrest in Gurgaon-Manesar area are compelling industrial units to migrate to other states.
“Assocham expresses its anguish and strongly condemns the violence at Maruti Suzuki premises,” its Secretary General D S Rawat said. Echoing similar views, CII’s Deputy Chairman (Northern Region) Jayant Davar said in Jaipur that the violence at the Maruti plant “is extremely unfortunate”. However, he added that in the long run, the incident would not have major impact on industrial environment. As Maruti Suzuki India share price tanked over 9 per cent, investors lost Rs 3,183 crore in a single day in the stock market today.
PTI
19 July 2012
The dangers of the mob in India
The teenager was assaulted on a busy road
In the heart of Guwahati, a bustling city in the north-eastern state of Assam, a mob of men assault a teenage girl coming out of a bar as a journalist records it on his video camera and people gawk. Gloating before the camera, the mob paws her, tries to strip her and burns her with cigarettes. The police arrive late – as is usually the case – and rescue the girl.
Last week, India came to know of this shocking act of depravity only after video of the assault went viral and the mainstream media picked it up. Predictable outrage gripped the airwaves and the social media. The police made their first, feeble arrests, though most of the attackers are still at large. There were allegations that the journalist, belonging to a local news channel, had incited the mob – he quit his job after denying the charge. The editor has now quit his job too.
Such attacks are becoming distressingly common in 21st Century India. Earlier this month a female lawmaker from Assam’s ruling Congress party was assailed by a 100-strong mob, apparently for marrying a Muslim man without divorcing her first husband. (Assam has a steep rate of crimes against women – a shocking 36.9 per 100,000 a year, against the national average of 18.9). On New Year’s eve in Gurgaon, an upscale suburb outside Delhi, several women coming out of a pub were assaulted by a group of men. And in Calcutta, a girl was picked up from outside a pub and raped, prompting the authorities to order a midnight shutdown on nightlife.
There could be many reasons why young women are becoming targets of attacks in India’s big cities. More and more women are stepping out of their homes to go to work. Many believe that such assaults are a backlash by a patriarchal and stiflingly male-dominated society unable to cope with the sight of a confident, empowered woman with a mind of her own. “You drink liquor!” the Guwahati mob barked at the girl as they went after her. More pointedly, such attacks also point to the rising tensions between two Indias – the India of the privileged and upwardly mobile reaping the benefits of a growing economy, and a darker India of urban malcontents, the jobless, lonely migrants, all seething in resentment even at the sight of young people going to a bar to have a drink.
These are the people who largely comprise “the mob” in India. It is a toxic throng of chauvinists and malcontents that revels in acting the vigilante and the moral police at the same time. The mob usually picks on soft targets – women emerging from night clubs, courting young couples. They are also known to mete out rough justice – people caught thieving, for example, are instantly lynched. Even though they represent a minority and most Indians abhor their behaviour, the “mob” also believes not much will happen to them if they are caught – the police are dysfunctional, laws are weak, witnesses are fickle and outrage is ephemeral.
Protecting women – and law-abiding citizens – from such acts need serious institutional reforms to the way India’s police and laws operate. Real issues are being trivialised and debate in India has degenerated into shrill headline-grabbing histrionics. What about a relentless campaign for a stronger police and firmer laws, argue campaigners – something India has been debating without any result for years? From democracy to mobocracy would be a dreadful descent.
—http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-18/maruti-suzuki-turns-violent-disruption-vehicle-output
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Maruti HR man beaten, burned alive
Hindustan Times – 9 hours ago
The body found at carmaker Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory after the mob violence on Wednesday was identified as that of senior human …
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