Tata Marcopolo’s Dharwad plant lifts lockout, resumes operations

Tata Marcopolo, a joint venture between Tata Motors and Brazil’s bus major Marcopolo, is resuming operations at its Dharwad bus manufacturing plant in Karnataka today. The plant has a workforce of around 2,500.

The company has lifted the lock-out that it declared on February 6 following employees resorting to strike on the back of a standoff between the labour union and management over negotiations on wage revision.  

Earlier, the company had accused workers of disruption and jeopardising its operations and reputation inspite of it “undertaking an upward wage revision every year, even in adverse market conditions”.

The lockout in Tata Marcopolo has created ripples in the recently held Karnataka Legislative Assembly session with opposition leader Jagadish Shettar expressing concern at the lockout as Tata Marcopolo is a major job provider in this rural belt.

However, the Tata Marcopolo management managed to reach a deal with the labour union, following a chain of tripartite talks led by the State labour department between the management and union leaders. The management-labour union agreement has been reached on Saturday, sources in the company said.

In an email response to Autocar Profesional, a Tata Motors spokesperson said, “In view of the larger interest of all the company’s stakeholders, the management of Tata Marcopolo Motors has taken a pragmatic view of the situation and ‎decided to lift the lockout to resume operations shortly.  The management is thankful to all key stakeholders, especially its employees, Tata Marcopolo Karmikara Sangha, neighbouring villages, social and political leaders, eminent personalities in the area,‎ the civil and police administration as well the labour and industries departments of the Karnataka government for all their efforts and overwhelming support.

“We strive to carry out peaceful business in a congenial environment maintaining highest standards of safety, discipline, productivity and quality to fulfil our commitment to well-being of all the stakeholders, the spokesperson added.

Tata Marcopolo, which is one of the major bus manufacturing plants in Karnataka apart from Scania and Volvo, has an installed capacity of 15,000 buses per annum.

On an average, the company produces around 100 types of buses every month at its Dharwad plant under  three categories – Light Commercial Vehicles (upto 7.5-tonne buses) , Intermediate Commercial Vehicles (upto 11 tonnes) and Medium Commercial Vehicles (upto 16 tonnes). Around 90 percent of the production is for the LCV and ICV segments and mainly comprise school buses.