Just yesterday we posted an article reporting one person killed and 40 others injured in a clash between workers and the managerial staff at the Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant in Gurgaon, forcing the plant to stop production. Now, Maruti officials has informed in detail about the incident at its Manesar manufacturing facility.
According to the reports, Maruti says that it is deeply disturbed by the mob violence and arson that took place at their Manesar Plant on Wednesday evening. The manufacturer says that several executives, managers and supervisors were brutally attacked and injured, and nearly 100 of them had to be hospitalized. The company said the violence was pre-planned, while the union denied there was any conspiracy.
The incident sparked when a worker is said to have slapped the supervisor in the shop-floor on Wednesday morning, after which the former was suspended by a management decision. When management was meeting in the conference room, the workers stormed in and there was a physical fight. At the same time sections of workers set fire at five places in the factory including the office facilities been burnt beyond repair, as the main gate, assembly line, security control room and the fire safety section.
Thereafter, 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. In simultaneous attacks in different parts of the factory, the mob beat the managers on their head, legs and back, rendering many of their victims bleeding and unconscious. They also ransacked offices, broke glass panes and wantonly damaged property.
A dead body of Awanish Kumar Dev, General Manager (HR) at Manesar Plant found charred beyond recognition in a conference room burnt to death by the angry mob. Few from the Maruti’s staff, who are currently at a hospital in Gurgaon, are said to be in a ‘serious condition’. While the rest are recovering from the physical injuries, it will take them a while to come out of the trauma. The injured include two Japanese expatriates, including the plant manager of the Manesar Plant.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) says it was a pre-planned attack, we weren’t able to understand it at that time and further adds saying this problem is not related to an ‘industrial relations’ in the nature of management-worker differences over issues of wages or working conditions. Instead the company alleged that the violence was an orchestrated act of mob, which has implications beyond one company or region.
Now 91 employees are been arrested by the state police, and 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.
What we say? This is not first time production been stopped at Maruti’s Manesar plant, last-year too when workers had gone on an indefinite strike to form an independent union at the same plant the company suffered a massive production loss of over 80,000+ vehicles in the 59 days of strike. But this time, not only has production been stopped but one person has been reportedly dead in the skirmish and as many as 85 people were injured in the scuffle. We hope that the situations get normal soon and these unfortunate violent situations don’t arise in any other industry in future.
Also see – Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant gutted in major fire, one killed
