Slowdown Affects Production of Tata Motors in Lucknow, Workers Suffer

Lucknow: Ramu Lodh, 35, spent quality time with his family on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami (a Hindu festival) a couple of days ago, but he was not exactly happy. He fears that he might soon be laid off from his workplace.

Lodh, who is the father of two toddlers, works as a helper in one of the ancillaries of Tata Motors (Marcopolo) in Lucknow on a contract basis. Ramu had been earning Rs 350 for an eight-hour shift, but in the month of July and August, he has been called to work only for 18 days owing to the decreased production. As a result, he could not earn enough to meet his family’s requirements.

According to a Reuters report, passenger vehicle sales in July fell at the fastest pace in nearly two decades. The sales declines have triggered major job cuts in India’s auto sector, with many companies forced to shut down factories for days and axe shifts.

Lodh works under Divine Manpower Supply, a contract labour supplying firm in the UPSIDC-II Industrial Area, in Chinhat of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Being a contract worker associated with a manpower supply agency, Ramu has to give 10% commission from his monthly salary to the contractor, but for the past two months, he has not been able to give the commission owing to lesser income. The contract labourer’s mind is filled with uncertainty as he wonders what will happen if the heavy motor-vehicle producing plant remains shut for a long time.

As per a highly placed source in Tata Motors, the plant was operational only on 12 days in the month of August and not more than 1,700 vehicles have been assembled. The source, however, informed NewsClick that the Lucknow plant has a capacity of assembling more than 5,000 vehicles in a month and the slowdown in the automobile industry has led to this situation where more and more people can face laying off in the coming months.

According to the figures gleaned from the Uttar Pradesh Labour office, the Chinhut Industrial area is home to more than 20,000 contractual labourers working in different ancillaries of Tata Motors and also the main unit.

The slowdown in the automobile sector has started taking a toll on the lives of the contractual workers working in different industries of the state. If local media reports are to be believed, five labourers have ended their lives due to increasing debts and joblessness in different areas of Kanpur and Lucknow in the last six months.

Industry expert Shobhit Singhal, who works as an independent industrial auditor, says that this slowdown is going to make an impact not just on big production plants, but also on the lives of lakhs and thousands of employees who work in smaller units.

“There are labourers who work in nickel polishing plants, in metallurgy plants of a very small units who supply material to the ancillaries, but these days, due to the decline in demand from the parent unit, all these concerned units have stopped their production and the labourers are sitting home. Even the big ancillaries, I will not take any name, are not operating with their full capacity while many of them are contemplating cost cutting, which would even includes layoffs,” he said, adding that if seps are not taken immediately, then the condition will become very grave and it would be difficult to contain it as a good number of labourers have also started migrating to different cities in search of jobs.

According to the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation, the Chinhat unit of their industrial hub is home to more than 170 micro and small industries which are directly or indirectly related to Tata Motors.

A senior professor from the Economics Department from the University of Lucknow fears a backclash from the right-wing elements and hence requested anonymity. He said, “The ‘black days’ are already here and this government has totally failed in containing the situation. Take the example of the one industry which has been the lifeline of the city's industrial area since decades. It has now brought down its production and now not just people from Lucknow but also from other neighbouring districts are going to suffer due to it.”

The professor further demanded that economy experts be brought in to restore the current financial condition of the country. Otherwise, the nation is staring at a recession, which may last longer than the previous spells.

It may be mentioned that the Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, in his address at the recently conducted UP Investors’ Summit, said that UP will play a major role in making India a five-trillion economy, but now, it seems to be a distant dream.

Also read: Auto Industry Crisis Deepens: Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Ashok Leyland Halt Production