Royal Enfield directs workers to report for duty

After issuing a notice on Friday asking employees who participated in the strike to give an undertaking that they would not engage in such activities in the future, Royal Enfield issued a fresh notice on Saturday asking all workers to join duty from the first shift on Sunday.

Reacting to the development, the unrecognised union which was engaged in the strike has said that the company has gone back to the status that was prevalent before the strike on September 24.

A notice issued on Saturday said that all departments will function normally from the first shift on Sunday and all are advised to attend duty without fail. R Sampath, vice-president of Royal Enfield Employees Union, the association which has been engaged in the strike seeking right to form workers union along with other demands, has said that the company through the labour department has conveyed that it will not collect the undertaking from the employees.

“The earlier notice said that the operations will be starting partially, but with the new notice all the workers have been directed to report to duty. The status before September 24 is being reinstated and this has been assured by the state labour department. All the three shifts will be running from Sunday. All the trainees have been asked to join before October 1, he said.

Company officials were not available immediately for a comment.

The management had earlier said that those employees who participated in the strike will have to take a pay cut since the company considers the agitation to be illegal. The pay cut had been implemented even before the new notice was issued on Saturday.

In its previous notice, the management said that for now, work will only resume partially at the unit and will scale up gradually. However, with the new notice, this decision may not be implemented, said Sampath quoting labour officials.

It further stated that employees will be allowed to resume work based on their commitment to consistently support operations without creating any disruption.

It also stated that the company’s production in the Oragadam facility was hit by the illegal strike, which was called by an unrecognised union at the factory on September 24. This has hampered the regular operations of the organisation.

Without disclosing loss due to the strike, the company said the plant was running in a restricted manner for the first two days. The company had invested around Rs 9 billion for the Oragadam unit, which has a capacity to produce around six lakh units per annum.

The developments come after a cross section of workers, who after issuing notice on August 13, had gone on strike from September 24.