Maruti ups Swift output despite stir, hiring fresh hands

Maruti Suzuki India is managing to work around the labour unrest at its Haryana plants, mainly at Manesar, and raised the production of its best-selling hatchback Swift to 670 units on Friday, 400 of which were produced at Manesar.

The company said in a statement that it had rolled out 670 Swift cars on Friday, 400 of which were produced at Manesar. It had produced 650 Swift cars on Thursday and 625 on Wednesday from the Manesar and Gurgaon plants.

Maruti Suzuki has been facing disruption in production at Manesar since 29 August when it stopped 950 workers from entering the plant unless they sign a 'good conduct bond'. The company said this had become necessary as it had found instances of sabotage and deliberately created quality problems in cars made at the plant.

So far only 116 workers have signed the bond. The dispute has cost a production loss of 18,000 units, worth close to Rs1,000 crore.

At present the combined strength of temporary workers, senior engineers and regular workers has reached 1,300 at Manesar. ''As the manpower strength at Manesar plant is going up steadily, the company is planning to further scale up production in the plant in coming days,'' the statement said.

The company has been gradually improving output by hiring new workers. Production at the affected plant has risen from 200 units a day at the beginning of the agitation to 400 on Friday.