SME Times News Bureau | 07 Feb, 2012
An entirely new team of office bearers of the United Union of Hyundai Employees (UUHE) will hold wage negotiations at the country's second largest car manufacturing company Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), which has been embroiled in labour tensions for several years, said a top union official.

"The current three-year wage agreement is coming to an end this March. We will now have to hear out the views of our members and prepare our charter of demands to be presented to the management," newly elected UUHE president G. Vinayagam said.

"We met the managing director Monday and extended our cooperation for the smooth running of operations and increased productivity. We also impressed upon him the need for the company to take care of worker's welfare," Vinayagam added.

Elections for various positions in the one-year-old UUHE were held early this month and the workers voted in an entirely new team to manage the affairs.

"I didn't contest the elections this time. A new team of officebearers have been voted in. Normally it would be difficult for the first set of office. Overall it is a victory for all the parties - for the workers to have a management recognised union and for the management to have an apolitical union," said K. Dilli Babu, the outgoing president of UUHE.

According to him, the proposed wage agreement will be the first one that HMIL management would negotiate and sign with a worker union.

For the past several years, HMIL has been embroiled in labour tensions at its plant. It had refused to recognise the employees union on the ground that the company has a works committee to take care of workers' issues.

But as the committee has no legal standing, workers registered a trade union, HMIEU, affiliated to the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the trade union arm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

But HMIL then said it would recognise an apolitical union, paving the way for UUHE last year.