-The Economic Times   Snubbed by former union leaders, workers at maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant have submitted an application to the Haryana labour department to register a new union.  "They have filed the application and we have got the written statement on Saturday. This union will not have an external affiliation, which is the key point of departure," said a maruti Suzuki official.  The management was clear from the beginning that it won't accept...

-The Economic Times   The key faces behind the recent labour unrest at maruti Suzuki that cost India's largest carmaker Rs 1,600 crore in lost revenues have quietly resigned from the company, pocketing payouts worth several lakh and leaving their one-time comrades both dazed and angry. By Wednesday, 30 suspended workers at maruti's Manesar plant, including their two leaders Sonu Gujjar and Shiv Kumar, had quit the company, taking home amounts ranging between...

Two months ago, a media baron from Ahmedabad bought 240 bighas of land near Mahakali temple in Sitapur village, adjacent to Hansalpur where India's largest car-maker maruti Suzuki India Ltd, plans to set up its biggest plant in the country.  The media baron paid Rs 12 lakh a bigha. On Tuesday, four days after the car project was announced, they sold the land for Rs 33 lakh a bigha.  From Sanand to...

-The Economic Times   maruti's decision to locate expanded production in Gujarat, following strikes at its plants in Haryana, is being widely interpreted as an instance of virtuous policy being rewarded and worker militancy as well as official failure to check it being penalised. Gujarat's industrial peace is the virtue, and its reward is flow of investment to the 'peaceful' state. However, the posited linear relationship between workforce docility and popular welfare...

Denial of labour entitlements to contract workers is at the root of urban squalor The human development report does not say anything new. It only sums up the outcome of policies being followed in this country. It does not, for instance, highlight the seeds that have manifested themselves in hunger and poverty. One of the seeds is the helpless labour enforcement machinery, which is unable to deal with the mammoth reality...