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| Dunlop suspends work at Ambattur plant |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Feb 23, 2012, 00:33 IST |
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Four months after Dunlop management shut down its Sahaganj factory in West Bengal, the beleaguered tyre maker on Wednesday declared suspension of work at its Ambattur plant (near Chennai ) too, alleging labour unrest.
The stop-work notice means, about 500 workers at the tyre-manufacturing factory will not get salary as long as the unit remains closed.
Explaining the atmosphere prevailing at the plant since February 10, the stop-work notice put the blame on non-cooperation of the workers, who the company alleged, “practically resorted to illegal strike.”
The Dunlop management claimed, “despite its best possible efforts to revive the unit and though it incurred heavy losses, the union did not co-operate and manipulated the attendance/payroll, which turned out to be detrimental to the revival/survival of the company.”
According to company officials, there has been no production of tyres at Ambattur for the last few months and was engaged in rubber mixing operation.
Pawan Ruia, Chairman of the Kolkata-based Ruia group that owns Dunlop India, had recently said, he was penning down a “restructuring plan” for the Ambattur unit. The plan envisages replacing the existing workforce at Ambattur with a new and smaller group, managed by the management team of group company, Falcon Tyres.
When contacted, Ruia said, “I will go ahead with the restructuring plan.”Earlier, Dunlop's Sahaganj plant had gone under suspension of work on October 8 for the third time since Pawan Kumar Ruia's acquisition of Dunlop in 2005 from the Manohar Rajaram Chhabria’s Jumbo group.In an effort to reopen the factory, on October 21, the management announced to lift the suspension of work at its Sahaganj plant in 'a phased manner' as part of his 'last attempt' to revive the plant.
But, the dead-lock still continues in the plant as the phase-wise withdrawal of the suspension of work failed to appease the workers. The trade unions as well as the state government has been demanding an unconditional withdrawal of suspension of work notice with all 800 workers. Meanwhile, Dunlop is fighting a wind-up petition from unsecured creditors in the Calcutta High court. The petition seeking the liquidation of the company was launched by a Kerala-based partnership firm EV Mathai and Sons.
Replying to a query on the same, Ruia had said, “I want the units to be operational, if it happens that will sort all issues. Anyway, I will pay off the liabilities. About 21-22 people have joined the petition, the total principal amount will be about Rs 47 crore. I am contesting the petition. We will follow court orders.”
According to regulatory filings, out of Dunlop's total indebtedness of Rs 338 crore on September-end, Dunlop had unsecured loans of Rs. 286.77 crore. However, the group claims, a substantial portion of the unsecured loan is from his group companies.
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