Hyundai's plant restored to normalcy, strike called-off

The Chennai plant of Hyundai India, which had been going through a complete production halt since last few days, today restored to normalcy as representatives of both workers and management reached to a truce. The breakthrough meeting was held at the house of Tamil Nadu's labor minister.

Mr R Sethuraman, senior VP, finance and corporate affairs, Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL), told to the reporters after summing-up the marathon meeting that the company is happy to say that it has signed an MoU with the striking employees. The strike has been called off.  The union’s demand to re-instate 67 people has been agreed, he added.

The representatives of both HMIL and workers signed an MoU, in which the HMIL has agreed to review the cases related to dismissal of 35 employees on humanitarian aspects. A six member committee, comprising representatives of HMIL, government and workers will review the issue on a case-to-case basis.

According to Mr Sethuraman, the consultation process is expected to take a month.  The company has accepted the main demand of the union to restore 67 workers. It has assured that 32 workers would go through the legal route. It has sealed on this, he added.

Hyundai India, which is facing a stiff competition from the new entrants in the compact car-segment including Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo, will now concentrate on producing at its maximum capacity at Chennai. The company is a major player in the compact car segment in Indian and sells some of the most popular cars in this segment including Hyundai Santro Xing, Hyundai i10 and Hyundai i20.