| |
BUSINESS:
MARUTI UDYOG
Staggering
the Tool-Downs
|
 |
| Former
MD Joshi and Bhaskarudu are responsible for MUL's woes
|
The
cornerstone of the MUL plan is a new incentive scheme for the workers
linked with performance, its base being labour productivity in 1998-99.
The Maruti Udyog Employees' Union (MUEU), which wants the base year to
be 1988-89 instead, struck as soon as the new incentive scheme was offered.
Though MUEU is not affiliated to any central trade union organisation,
its 40-year-old chief, Abraham Mathew, is networked with politicians of
many hues, from the CPI to Joshi's Shiv Sena. His hold on the union expanded
under the protection of former MUL managing director R.S.S.L.N. Bhaskarudu,
a government nominee, who got an earlier suspension order against Mathew
revoked. This time round, Mathew persuaded his colleagues to go on a relay
hunger strike from September 19. It snowballed from October 3 into tool-down
sessions for two hours, and demonstrations inside the factory. The management
suspended nine employees as a result. In retaliation, the union staggered
the tool-downs-at the press shop and the welding shop in the morning,
then at the paint shop and the engine assembly, and finally in the vehicle
inspection lines. In a continuous-process industry where one production
line leads to another, such staggered disruption holds up the entire day's
production.
Finally,
the management issued an undertaking, to be filled up at the factory gate,
stating that the employee would refrain from violating the "standing
order", failing which he'd be liable for punitive action. Most workers
refused to sign it. So MUL was forced to draft nearly 1,000 ex-apprentices
who, with 1,200 present apprentices, have managed to roll out about 1,000
cars a day against the regular pace of 1,300. Nevertheless, the labour
strife has vitiated the work atmosphere in what is perhaps the finest
company among those with a large government shareholding.
"The
problem started," says Managing Director Jagdish Khattar, "with
the need for having a new incentive scheme." The union wanted the
base year to be 1988. But MUL already had two more incentive schemes since
then. So the management wanted the base year to be 1998, the year up to
which the last incentive scheme was valid. In 1988-89, an MUL employee
produced 25 cars a year on an average, a figure which touched 70 in 1998-99.
If the incentive
is calculated on the 1998-99 base, the average income package of an employee
will go up from Rs 22,000 a month to Rs 33,000, a little over the salary
of a university professor. However, if the union has its way, the package
shoots up to Rs 43,000. This is unacceptable for a company which is struggling
with a big squeeze on its margins (see chart). Rohtash Mal, chief general
manager (marketing and sales), admits that as many as three of MUL's eight
brands have a negative margin, the lion's share of profits still coming
from the old and trusted Maruti 800. But even that is coming in for competition.
"Today a customer looking at a sub-compact car is bombarded with
multiple options beyond the Zen and the Maruti 800," says Ashwin
Sanghi of Vitesse, MUL's oldest distributor in Mumbai. Against all these
odds, the company has retained its dominance and, surprisingly, scored
top marks in customer satisfaction too. Mal reminds that market leaders
seldom score very high in customer satisfaction, US No. 2 Ford Motors
being ranked No. 9 in keeping the buyer happy. "It is a tribute to
Maruti's listening capability," he declares.
Pg.1
| Pg.3
Top
|
|
INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 