Maruti Suzuki loses $307 million revenue on strike

Continued labour unrest at the Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's Manesar plant is worrying the auto giant and the vendors in the Haryana auto belt. The auto major has incurred a revenue loss of $306.7 million since Aug. 29.

"Our production has suffered because of the labor issues. We have made 50,000 fewer cars so far because of the unrest," the company's chairman RC Bhargava said earlier this week.  For Delhi-headquartered MSIL, the disruption in production has meant a loss of a whopping 54,775 units.

The situation continues to be grave with production dwindling to a mere 600 units at Gurgaon on Wednesday. It has already halted at Manesar.

The workers have been on strike since Oct. 7 demanding the reinstatement of 44 colleagues who weren't taken back by Maruti after a 33-day dispute ended Oct. 1. Earlier the workers went on strike in August when the compnay asked their workers to sign a "good conduct bond". While the management maintains that the current strike is in violation of the agreement signed by the workers with the company management on October 1, workers allege that the company has refused to induct around 1,100 contract workers after a 33-day standoff that began in end-August.

The ongoing strike is expected to impact its sales this festive season. Lower production will also likely extend the waiting period on Maruti's bestselling Swift hatchback for which it has more than 100,000 pending orders. The company said that they are negotiating with the striking workers but nothing concrete has been worked out.

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