By

People Management Dynamics At Aakash Johri

Anirudh Chauhan
19P181
19P186

Maruti Suzuki Manesar Plant Brij Raiyani 19P212

A Popular HR Chief Burned To Death

Nithin Kothapalli 19P205
Shreya Jain 19P223
Siddhant Daga 19P225
Background
On 18th July 2012, auto factory workers in Maruti's Manesar plant attacked
supervisors and started a fire that killed a company official and injured
100 managers, including two Japanese expatriates.

The attack was allegedly influenced by:

i. A caste slur (later discredited) by a supervisor against a worker
ii. Failed negotiations about employee regularization

The company has faced several incidents of employee protest, but never of
such scale and violence.

The incident is the worst-ever for Suzuki since the company began
operations in India in 1983.
 Breakdown of IR at Manesar Plant
• After privatization, a new HR strategy specialist was hired in 2003 who introduced some strategic
HR interventions
New HR • Promoted values of: work-life balance, passion for work, and company loyalty.
Strategy

• Manesar plant workers were much younger (all Gen Y), internet savvy, and conscious of employee
rights
• With less experience, they received lesser total emoluments
Younger • They also began to perceive stressful working conditions, tight work schedules, indifference of
Workers Gen Y supervisors/managers

• Management initiated disciplinary action against many activist workers for misconduct during
strikes
• They took back most of the suspended employees, except 12 key union activists who were made to
Unfair Labour retire from the company in return for a hefty secret payment
Practices • This fact became known to everyone around, and media gave a lot of publicity to this revelation

• Workers succeeded in registering an independent union on 29th February 2012

• The new union assumed office and submitted a demand charter
New union • The workers demanded revocation of the suspension of a worker pending inquiry instantaneously,
assumed but the management was agreeing to withdraw it from the next day
office
 What are dominant cross cultural issues in this case?

• At Maruti Suzuki, like elsewhere in India, there are several types of employment contract:
-Permanent staff, corresponding for the most part to skilled employees.
-Apprentices, who are taken on for a period of three years (on wages less than permanent staff) and who, at the end
of these three years, “hopefully” become permanent.
-Trainees, who have alternating contracts (with wages even lower than those of the apprentices) during their
studies, without any guarantee of a job.
-Temporary workers, who are employed in the factory via another company and who do either specific tasks
(canteen, cleaning, transport) or all the least skilled jobs in production.
• Permanent workers at Manesar compared their wages to the wages of workers at nearby HONDA and voiced anger
about the fact that they earned only half as much. The production capacity of Maruti was increasing but their
salaries weren't.
• Also in the case, we could see that Japanese employees who were at senior leadership were not aware about how
the unions in the India works which lead to the increase in the violence.
• Also the cultures at both Gurgaon and Manesar plant were quite different, as at Gurgaon union workers worked
quite interactively with the management team and they were quite used to with HR practices implemented by the
management team while at Manesar plant union workers were quite young and hostile against management team
compared to Gurgaon workers and raised their voices quite often against management team.
• Also at the same time management team should know that the freedom of the individual is very important and the
strict HR policies such as missing half day wages for getting even a minute late and limited toilet breaks do not
work well with the workers.
• Also they should know that any individual is free to join any union they want and the management team cannot
intervene in this issues.
 What role was being played by the state
and its agencies in this dispute, and why?
 The new NDA government found that the earlier government had engaged a very
expensive Supreme Court senior advocate to assist the state government’s public
prosecutor in arguing the cases against the 147 workers under trial. The lawyer had been
paid Rs 5.5 crore rupees for himself and his team.
 The new government removed this lawyer from the case in December 2014. She lamented
that the state was using its powers of criminal investigation and prosecution for ulterior
motives, and that workers were being put in jail to please private business and crush
trade union activities, while putting forth a façade of peace.
 It became evident that the government’s sole purpose was to cause delays in getting bail
for the workers.
 The media reported that the NDA government wanted to send signals of enforcing strict
industrial discipline in the state to attract capital for the state’s better industrial
development.
 What should MSIL do for a sustainable labour-
management cooperation at the Manesar plant?

• Better communication and psychological connect between

employees and labour
• Identify a credible spokesperson who would act as POC
between the workers and management
• Open Door Policy: Anyone can freely contact anyone for
their issues
• Survey / Grievance Redressal Mechanism: Opportunity for
employees to voice their concerns, anonymously, if needed
• Regular interaction between workers and top management
• Line managers should be trained on their soft skills
 Strategic HRM lessons
 Engage the workforce
The most important way to do this is through dialogue. Companies should review if they listen enough to
their people and whether they consider the latter’s points of view or not. For a manufacturing company,
there has to be the right amount of productivity to stay competitive, but it can’t ignore the task of keeping
the workforce engaged and motivated with a sense of ownership in the company.
The best way to build that trust through dialogue is by sharing the business plans with the employee on the
factory shop-floor or at the sales front-end. The yearly business plan, once created by the leaders, will have
to be translated into a cascading, but two-way communication, so that even the blue-collar workforce in the
factory understands what levels of productivity and innovation are needed of them to achieve the targets
and why. They would want to work towards it — it will improve their livelihood as well.
 Build psychological connect
For lasting cooperation, Maruti needs to train its line managers not just in grievance redressal but in caring
for and communicating with each worker from their heart so as to develop among them a sense of
ownership. That would help strengthen a workplace culture that restores the workers’ pride and dignity
 Learn to trust
The confidence of the workers in the employer should not waver. Interventions from third parties could
shake the confidence levels of blue-collar workers. One of the ways to handle such a scenario is to invest in
adding skills to the workforce, contract or permanent.
 Be proactive, not reactive