Company sources said about 500 employees from the permanent cadre along with trainees had finished work by 3 pm, but stayed back inside the factory awaiting the outcome of the union-management meeting.
NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki is considering sacking all its A-shift workers, who are suspected to have played a role in the violence perpetrated on July 18 that led to the killing of Awanish Kumar, the 51-year-old HR manager, and left 96 staffers wounded. The ‘A’ or the first shift starts at 7 am and ends at 3 pm. The carmaker is in the process of identifying the culprits with the help of some of its employees — managers and supervisors — said to be primary witnesses to the incident.
Maruti will also seek inputs from the special investigations team of the Haryana Police set up to probe the violence. “We are in the process of identifying the perpetrators with active assistance from our managers. There is no scope to retain any of the workers involved in the assault and violence at Manesar. We want to create a strong deterrent with a clear message to miscreants that the guilty have no chance as we restart production,” Maruti Chief Operating Officer (administration ) SY Siddiqui said. The exact number of workers involved in the violence on that fateful day in the A-shift is not known as most attackers had camouflaged themselves.
Company sources said about 500 employees from the permanent cadre along with trainees had finished work by 3 pm, but stayed back inside the factory awaiting the outcome of the union-management meeting.
The B-shift staff, whose work starts at 3 pm and ends at 11 pm, continued producing cars at the plant till 7 pm, a clear indication that most of them were on the job when the violence started in the factory. Police investigations too point to large-scale involvement of the morning shift employees in the violence.
“There is no doubt that violence at the Manesar plant appears to be largely the work of morning shift workers. Most of the workers arrested are from Haryana with a sizeable number from neighbouring areas of Sonepat , Hisar, Rohtak and Gurgaon,” said a police officer, who is part of the special investigations team. KK Sidhu, the commissioner of Gurgaon Police, refused to comment on the progress of the probe. The main suspects in the case, Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union President Ram Meher Singh and General Secretary Sarabjeet Singh, are still absconding. Worried About Staff Safety
