האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

He also deplored these striking ex-employees bid to tarnish the brand Honda by baselessly alleging that people with no experience are making the scooters and bikes and therefore their quality is suspect. "Our products always stand for highest quality benchmarks. These allegations are unfounded, mischievous and malicious, and are aimed at damaging our reputation, goodwill and business."

But central trade union representative accuse the management of scuttling efforts to form a union by prompting a section of workers to challenge the move in a civil court, which stayed the process after the February troubles.

Manesar plants union president Suresh Gaur could not be contacted for comments. He had told reporters last week in Delhi that they would support the Tapukara agitation if the management refused to cooperate.

Whether HMSI is ready to take back these sacked people to end the stalemate, Singh said there is no such plan. "There is absolutely no possibility of they being taken back. They were sacked for gross indiscipline, sabotage at plant including damage to machinery, inventory and production loss which led to over Rs 12 crore loss to HMSI in February. Moreover, threatening the lives of co-workers under the name of union formation cannot be ignored."

Singh also said before being sacked these workers were demanding Rs 11,000 each from each permanent workers towards forming the union and those who refused to pay up were brutally beaten up and detained at the plant on February 16, which led to the police action.

HMSI, which has an annual capacity of 5.8 million scooters and bikes, has had brush with labour unrest in the past too. Its first plant at Manesar saw labour dispute in 2005, which turned into a political issue after agitating workers were beaten up by the Haryana police. In late 2009 also there were disputes at Manesar. Then last December and February this year, Tapukara workers began to protest, and the ongoing Jantar Mantar sit-in is continuation of that. PTI BEN DK MKJ