Dunlop India on Wednesday announced suspension of work at its Ambattur factory in Chennai owing to labour unrest. The company said it has no alternative but to go for suspension of work owing to the violent and indecent behaviour of several hundred workers in the factory premises over the last few days, who have caused heavy loss and damages to the company’s property, besides causing irreparable mental agony, torture to the management and staff and their family, jeopardising work ? the only source of revenue for the company at present.
The company, which reopened the Ambattur factory after long-term agreements on wage and other issues with labour union in October 2009, had to stop production of tyres for two wheelers and cars sometime ago owing to financial problems. It has been involved in rubber mixing (raw material) and sending the same to Falcon Tyres in Mysore to produce tyres for various segments. When contacted, officials were not available for comments in Chennai. No management staff were allowed to enter the premises, said Dunlop. The management also noticed that there was large discrepancy in the payroll prepared by the unionised staff and the actual amount payable to workers, based on attendance recorded through bio-metric system. The management thus asked an independent agency to audit the payroll system from October 2009 to ascertain the extent of excess amount paid over the last two years.
