Bajaj, workers sign wage agreement

Two wheeler giant Bajaj Auto, on Monday signed a wage agreement, with its internal employees union, after it was over due by three years, but which resulted in only a modest hike of ₹4500 for each of the 4000 employees working at its Waluj plant here. Moreover, the management has also convinced the union to put in a minimum of 480 minutes of work per day, almost a full hour more than they put in under the present contract. The agreement will hold for another three years, TK Prabhakaran, the legal advisor to the union, who guided the negotiations for the last three years, said, talking to Hindustan Times.

There will be no arrears paid to the employees for the period the agreement was pending for various reasons, including a protracted legal battle over which of the unions at the plant was an authorized one to sign the agreement.

Instead, the new wage agreement provides for a ₹80,000 lump sum payment against the arrears.

The new agreement also marks the official end of the Shiv Sena affiliated Bhartiya Kamgar Union, that reigned the plant for over fifteen years, overseeing three wage agreements that had hiked wages by ₹900, ₹1400 and 1900. 'Just see the contrast, three BKS agreements give the workers a hike of ₹4200 and just one by us brings them ₹4500 more each month', Prabhakaran said.

Bajaj Auto, vice president, CP Tripathi, signed the agreement on behalf of the management while, Mr Arjun Adhav, signed it on behalf of the union.

The benefits of the agreement would be applicable to all employees involved in the production work at the plant, irrespective of whether or not they were members of the internal union. Earlier, during a wage contract involving 1400 employees at the plants canteen, the sena affiliated BKS union had refused to extant its benefit to the 400 non members at the canteen.