Sacked Maruti Suzuki workers take out march

Gurgaon, July 18 (IANS) Sacked workers of Maruti Suzuki Friday held a protest march and demanded the reinstatement and release of their jailed colleagues who were locked up for violence in 2012.

Maruti Suzuki had cut its workforce by a third after violence in July 2012 and dismissed 546 employees in connection with the labour unrest at its Manesar facility.

The violence had resulted in the death of senior executive Awanish Kumar Dev and left about 100 company officials injured.

A member of a provisional working committee (constituted by the sacked workers) under the aegis of the non-functional Maruti Suzuki Workers' Union (MSWU) said the innocent jailed workers should be released.

"There are two principal demands. We want the police to release the 147 workers arrested from Manesar in 2012. Besides, we want the company to re-induct all workers in Maruti Suzuki, Suzuki Powertrain and Suzuki Motorcycles who were dismissed from service in connection with the incident," a trade union leader said.

MSWU members claimed the company had also dismissed nearly 2,000 contract workers.

Workers held the protest march from Gaushala Maidan to Mini Secretariat holding banners and posters in their hands after District Magistrate Shekhar Vidyarthi Wednesday imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC till July 19 around Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant, two days before the second anniversary of the violence there.

Gatherings, protests and public meetings without prior permission from the administration were banned in Manesar and along the Delhi-Jaipur national highway near Manesar.

The former workers want their jobs back and are demanding a CBI inquiry or one by a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the incident.

The plant is now functioning with new staff.