Toyota announced the lockdown of two of its subsidiary production units in India on Monday, allegedly over wage hike issues.
Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Private Limited said in a press release that there's an outcome for the tripartite discussion with employees and the government of Indian state of Karnataka, where the units are located, employee unions have stopped assembly line production. This illegal halt in production has been ongoing over the last 25 days.
"Under the instigation of the union, certain sections of the employees have resorted to deliberate stoppages of the production line, abuse and threatening of supervisors thereby continuously disrupting business for the past 25 days. All these unlawful activities have been detailed in the lock-out notice," the company said in a statement adding that it had no other option but to lockdown the units in the interest of its workers and management personnel.
Reuters reported that the Karnataka units, located in the state capital city of Bangalore, are Toyota's only units in India.
Hindustan Times added that the two locations produce 310,000 units annually. Employee union members stated that the lockout was illegal since the company did not give the mandatory 14-day notice to employees before shutting down the units.
The closure occurred on Sunday, without giving details of reopening of the units, according to Reuters. Spokesperson Naoki Sumino was stated that the closure would cause a daily production loss of 700 vehicles. He added that the company and employees will continue holding talks to resolve issues.
The lockout over wages comes on the heels of the biggest ever wage hike for Toyota's Japanese workers. According to New York Times, it's the first hike since 2008, amounting to $26.
The Indian auto industry has witnessed discontent over wages on earlier occasions. According to Yahoo, rioting workers of Maruti Suzuki killed a company manager at the company's unit in New Delhi in 2012. The incident forced the unit's closure for a month, resulting in losses of about $18 million a day, according to Yahoo.
