Pankaj Doval, TNN | Dec 25, 2012
NEW DELHIMaruti Suzuki has said it has no intention of taking back any of the 500-odd workers sacked for the July 18 carnage at its Manesar plant even as the Haryana Police has charged only around 150 workers.

Maruti chairman R C Bhargava has said that the company will not take them back as it has eyewitness accounts that all of them were involved in the July 18 rampage at Manesar, which left one senior manager dead and nearly 100 injured. “If people took part in violent activities, how do I take them back? They were part of the mob.”

The company went in for the mass layoffs after accumulating evidence against the workers. “It was done after a careful scrutiny. We have eyewitness accounts of our managers and supervisors who were attacked,” the company chairman said.

Maruti’s refusal to take back any of the fired staff is, however, objected to by the company’s labour union, which has been demanding the re-instatement of a majority , especially after they were not even named in the chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe the matter.

“While the fate of those named by the police in its chargesheet will be decided by the court, there is no logic of not taking back the others. We see them as innocent and demand that the company take them back immediately,” said Kuldeep Jhangu, the general secretary of the company’s Gurgaon plant union Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU).

MUKU had also raised the matter with Suzuki chairman Osamu Suzuki when he had visited India in the aftermath of the incident. However, the company had not given any assurance on the matter.

Maruti Suzuki has also raised doubts over the findings of the SIT probe, which had said the violent events at the plant were not instigated from outside, but were due to internal issues between the management and workers.