Bajaj Auto unions demand shutdown after 250 employees contract COVID-19

Employees at Bajaj Auto, India’s largest exporter of motorbikes, are demanding the non permanent closure of one in every of its vegetation after 250 workers there examined optimistic for coronavirus, its unions stated on Saturday, as corporations battle to ramp up operations.

India went into full lockdown in late March to curb the unfold of the virus but it surely has just lately eased restrictions regardless of the variety of circumstances surging, placing some corporations in a tough place as they attempt to revive manufacturing.

The Bajaj Auto manufacturing unit affected is situated in western Maharashtra, the state with the very best variety of circumstances of COVID-19, the illness the virus causes. The corporate stated in a letter to workers this week that those that don’t present up for work won’t be paid.

“Individuals are scared to return to work. Some are nonetheless coming however some are taking go away,” stated Thengade Bajirao, president of the Bajaj Auto Employees’ Union.

The corporate stated on June 26 that 140 of the roughly eight,000 employees on the manufacturing unit had caught the virus and two had died.

It stated work there wouldn’t be stopped, nonetheless, as the corporate needed to study to “reside with the virus”.

An official in Aurangabad district, overseeing the Waluj space the place the plant is situated, stated the variety of circumstances had now gone as much as greater than 250.

Bajaj Auto didn’t reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.

On Saturday, India reported a report variety of greater than 22,000 each day circumstances of an infection, taking the nationwide whole to greater than 640,000.

“We requested the corporate to briefly shut the plant for 10-15 days to interrupt the cycle however they stated there isn’t a level as individuals will proceed to collect for social occasions exterior of labor,” the Bajaj union’s Bajirao stated.

For each worker testing optimistic, 4 who work near them should be quarantined, affecting productiveness, he stated.

With an annual manufacturing capability of over three.three million motorbikes and different automobiles, the Waluj plant accounts for greater than 50% of Bajaj’s manufacturing quantity in India.

“If an worker stays absent at workplace or plant on account of any motive regardless of being requested by the corporate, then his/her wage can be deducted 100% in the course of the interval,” Bajaj stated within the letter to workers.

In Could, Chinese language smartphone maker OPPO suspended operations briefly at a plant close to New Delhi after some employees examined optimistic.

Employees and union leaders say Bajaj has taken steps to make sure social distancing on the manufacturing unit flooring and in its cafeteria, moreover arranging separated seating on its buses and offering masks and sanitisers for employees. However they are saying this isn’t sufficient.

“On the meeting line, a number of individuals contact the identical engine. We had been sporting gloves however nonetheless caught the virus,” stated one employee who was in hospital after testing optimistic for COVID-19.

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