The workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India had enough reasons to cheer in the early hours of Saturday morning. With the active interference of Haryana chief minister B S Hooda, the management-labour spat was settled with a promise by HMSI to take back the four dismissed and 50 suspended employees.
Though the 54 workers may not be working in the assembly any more and would be posted in a non-manufacturing section of the company, the entire settlement processes saw HMSI retract its earlier stand on taking back the dismissed. Hooda called for a press conference at his residence in Delhi at around 2 am and announced that the HMSI episode was now history.
Even when representatives of management and the workers had met Hooda in Chandigarh on Thursday, it was not clear whether the settlement would be arrived at before things got out of hand again.
Pressure was not just on the HMSI management to arrive at an early settlement but also on the Haryana government, because besides becoming a regular law and order problem, it was also an FDI-related issue for the country.
While industry associations and luminaries said the HMSI-labour spat was an isolated case and would not hit the FDI flow into the country, there were section of both industry and diplomats who said the police brutality on Monday was sending wrong signal to foreign investors.
Though the settlement came in quicker than expected, the workers' union under the All India Trade Union Congress, still believe its only half a victory.
AITUC functionaries said the cases filed against the protesters will have to be withdrawn. Hooda for his part said the law will take it course. Around 60-odd workers who had been arrested would now be granted bail without any further resistance from the police.
Production at HMSI would now return to normal after a gap of more than two months. The workers who had stayed away from work are expected to be taken back in batches. The company has also promised to pay the salary for May and June 2005.
Settlement shows Left in right light
As the workers and management of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India settled their differences before dawn on Saturday, the real winner could well be the Communist Party of India.
Its affiliate, the All Indian Trade Union Congress, had brought under its fold the company's workers union, pipping Indian National Lok Dal to the post.
AITUC functionaries see the HMSI dispute settlement as a watershed for the union movement in the industrially flourishing Gurgaon-Manesar region. Despite having over 400 units in the region, the number of workers' unions under the AITUC is only 30, with an estimated 12,000 worker members.
"There are several companies that are yet to be covered. The labour law implementation in this region is very poor with repression by both the management and the state," said AITUC national secretary, D L Sachdev.
Attempts to bring the HMSI union under the AITUC fold had been an uphill task, said Sachdev. "The formalities and paper work were completed as early as February 2005. But the union itself was registered only by the end of May. Under normal conditions, this must not take more than a month and a half. Four of the leaders were dismissed later by the HMSI management," Sachdev said.
According to Sachdev, INLD came into the picture only after the Monday lathi charge. "Naturally political parties will try to take advantage of such a situation. But we try avoid politicising of the union movement and try to keep political parties out of this," he said. He claimed that though the AITUC is affiliated to the CPI, at an operational level, the two are kept apart.
"Some of the CPI leaders are also leaders of the AITUC. Otherwise there is no operational level interference by the party in the functioning of AITUC," he said.
AITUC feels that even the settlement in the HMSI case, which is tilted strongly in favour of the union and workers, is only a partial victory for the union movement. "Cases are still pending against some of the workers and 60 of them are still in police custody," Sachdev said.
The long-term plan for AITUC is to bring more units in this region under its control. "This will be more a natural process and will be done with full consent of the company unions who wish to be affiliated with AITUC," he said.
In the process of bringing more unions under its control, the AITUC does not see any serious competition from regional political parties. He added that only because INLD has its base in the state, it tried to gain control of the union. AITUC's attempt would be keep political parties out of this movement.
Additional report: S Kalyana Ramanathan
