A large number of erstwhile temporary workers of Maruti Suzuki held a meeting here on Sunday (December 5, 2024) seeking permanent jobs at the company’s upcoming Kharkhoda plant, creation of 30,000 permanent posts and 40% pay hike for the temporary workers among other things.

The workers had travelled overnight from their villages in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Orissa to reach the venue for the founding general meeting of the Maruti Suzuki Asangathit Mazdoor Sangh, said a press statement issued by the organisers.

The charter prepared and adopted by the workers in the meeting demanded permanent employment for all workers engaged in permanent nature of work and creation of 30,000 permanent posts in the company’s existing four plants. They also demanded that the recruitment to all these posts, including those in the upcoming plant in Kharkhoda, Sonipat, should be held only from among those who have previously worked in any Maruti plant as temporary workers. In the meantime all temporary workers must be given a 40% pay hike and a ‘clearance amount’ equal to the difference in the salaries of temporary and permanent workers for every month of service in the company. With regard to the ‘sham’ training process being conducted by the company, workers demanded that the government intervene to ensure that student trainees being recruited by the company are actually allowed to up-skill themselves and not be engaged as workers in the main production process.

The meeting was organised in the wake of a demand notice submitted by the Maruti Suzuki Struggle Committee on behalf of various categories of temporary workers presently working in the four plants. The meeting also received active support and assistance from Maruti workers terminated from the company in 2012. These workers have been agitating to be reinstated with back wages for their unfair dismissal and sitting in Industrial Model Township Manesar in an indefinite sit-in since September last year.

In the press statement, the organisers claimed that presently Maruti Suzuki employees 36,000 workers across its four plants, out of which a mere 17% are permanent and the rest are divided into various categories which include Temporary Workers 1 and 2, Casual Workers, Apprentices, Contract Workers and Student Trainees. The entire production of the plants are dependent on this temporary workforce, whereas the role of permanent workers has been limited to supervisory roles at best.

There exists a huge pay gap between permanent and temporary workers, with permanent employees drawing an average salary of ₹1.30 lakh while temporary workers draw salaries between ₹12,000 to ₹30,000. Temporary workers are recruited for a mere seven months at a time. Student trainees form another significant category of the workforce who are engaged in full production in the name of apprenticeship and Industrial Training Institute education, only to leave the plant after two-three years with a certificate that has no currency in the labour market.