Chennai . Around 1,100 employees of the auto company Ford India’s factory in Maraimalainagar area of Tamil Nadu capital Chennai returned to work on Monday despite no agreement between the workers union and the management. Employees have been protesting for the last 22 days demanding better service termination package.
Ford India’s Chennai factory is going to close soon.
A staff union official told IANS that some employees who agreed and did not agree to the termination package have started coming to work.
He said that a tripartite meeting is to be held on Monday between the representative of the employees union, the management and the labor department of Tamil Nadu. Earlier, the Labor Department had said that this matter is between the company and the employees and they should find a solution through mutual dialogue.
About 2,600 employees work in this factory of Ford India. Sources said 400 workers are outside the plant gates and around 1,000 workers are at their homes.
Another union official told IANS that the management was earlier offering 87 days’ salary in lieu of every year’s service, which has been increased to 110 days.
The protesting workers are but demanding a package as per the termination package of another carmaker. The said carmaker has given 135 days’ salary to the employees for every year’s service and is also bearing their income tax expenses.
These employees have been sitting on dharna since Monday. The employees’ union official said that the workers who were protesting inside the factory earlier, are now staging a dharna outside the gate.
The union official also expressed apprehension that even if the management says that it does not want to make EVs, but the company is working hard for EVs. The company is not disclosing at which plant it will manufacture the EVs. It seems that the EV is to be manufactured at this plant and before that employees are being laid off.
The union official said that production is to be held at this plant only for the next few days. EcoSport cars are manufactured at this plant for export.
Ford India has four plants in the country. In September 2021, the automaker announced the closure of its factory in Sanand, Gujarat by the last quarter of FY21 and the Chennai plant by the second quarter of FY22.
The Sanand factory has been announced to be acquired by Tata Motors and the employees there will also now work for Tata.
–IANS
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