PRE MOU PERIOD:

Bosch Limited, Bangalore plant strike

Bangalore: Workmen Union of Bosch Ltd. Bangalore plant declared an illegal strike
starting from the first shift of 16th September, 2014. This strike has now entered into
its third month and has adversely impacted not only the Company but also the
Workmen with heavy financial losses.
The Company would like to state some of the key facts on this matter as below:
- Despite the challenging business situation, the Company has put forth its best wage
and benefits offer to the Bangalore plant Workmen Union. Bosch Ltd. is already one of
the best paymasters in the manufacturing industry. With the proposed wage offer, the
current cost to company (CTC) of an average workman will increase from Rs. 64000/
month to upward of Rs. 85000/ month for 7 to 7.5 hours of work in an 8 hours shift.
Considering the

indexing

(inflation),

the proposed

CTC

will

further

increase

substantially. This revised wage offer will retain the Bosch Workmen compensation as
one of the best in the manufacturing industry.
- Presently, the Bangalore plant has by far the lowest productivity amongst the Bosch
plants in India. The productivity target in our current proposal is based on
International Industrial Engineering Standards, and the same is well accepted and
followed across all Bosch plants worldwide. Implementation of such standards is
imperative to ensure the Bangalore plants competitiveness from a long-term
perspective. Our untrained white collar employees, who are supporting production
during this strike have easily met these productivity targets.
- Currently, the Bangalore plant has approximately 370 temporary and around 2500
permanent Workmen. Despite the fact that in future, the Company is likely to have
excess manpower due to changes in product mix, towards more automated processes
required to support modern engines and latest emission legislation, the Company has
offered to confirm 100 of the 370 temporary Workmen. They currently earn more than
the permanent Workmen in many related industries.
Page 2 of 3
- This illegal strike of Union has continued till date albeit the State Governments
prohibitory order dated 10/10/14.
- During the negotiation meeting on Oct 31, 2014, two of the workmen union
representatives indulged in provocative and unparliamentarily behaviour with the
present Bosch Management representatives. This deplorable incidence resulted in the

meeting having to be discontinued. The company strongly condemns such unruly

behaviour and has taken necessary disciplinary action as per the standing orders of
the company. Later, they also resorted to violent behaviour by vandalizing the house
of a senior officer of the company.

In the last two months, intensive wage

discussions have been held at various levels including intervention of concerned

government departments and state government authorities.
The Company is taking all necessary measures to conclude the wage negotiation
discussions with the Union and will continue with its fair and firm approach. In the
larger interest of the Workmen, the Company and the Indian automotive industry, the
Bosch Management is urging the Union to call off the indefinite illegal strike, restore
normalcy and conclude the wage settlement at the earliest.
The Companys interim measures to meet the demands of its customers are
continuing,

through

deployment

of

alternate

resources

on

production

line,

provisionally sourcing products from its international production network and utilizing
built up inventory. The Company acknowledges the Government of Karnatakas
support and looks forward to the same in future as well. While the company has
offered a hike of Rs 17,000 per head per month, the workmen are demanding around
Rs 20,000 hike per month.

Bangalore: The first round of talks with the management would be held on Thursday
to resolve issues at German auto component major Bosch's Adugodi plant, where
strike by workers entered the second day on Wednesday, a union official said.
"We will be holding bilateral talks with the management as per the direction of
Additional Labour Commissioner Narasimhamurthy to solve issues pending for the
past 22 months," Mico Employees Association president S Prasanna Kumar told PTI in
Bangalore.
A the bilateral meeting - a tripartite meeting involving the union, the company
management and the Additional Labour Commissioner - will be held on September 20,
he said.
The workers had gone on an indefinite strike on Tuesday claiming that the
management planned to cut down some medical benefits and demanded productivity
"which cannot logically happen to the level of their expectation".

In a filing to the BSE on Tuesday, the company on described the demands of the
workers as "unreasonable" and the strike as illegal.
The company has 2,575 permanent workers, 700 temporary workers and 1,000
contract workers, Mr Kumar said.
The management has also started issuing transfer orders to employees to shift to
Bidadi plant near Bangalore without even discussing facilities like transport, he said.
The company's Bangalore plant has a history of workers' unrest, and the plant was
shut down temporarily following a strike in September 2011.

Ref: 2014/015

Date 26.08.2014

Shri X Union leader of labours in BOSCH Bangalore

Dear Sir
Re: Signing of MOU for Wage Settlement & working timing
We wish to convey our heartiest congratulations to you, entire leadership of AIUTC and
entire working force in engineering industry for successfully steering the struggle from
humiliating offer of 5 percent initially to respectful agreement of 15 percent finally and
signing MOU with IBA to this effect.
2. We find from contents of the MOU signed that other pending issues will be
discussed and negotiated in next 90 days for final settlement. Pending issues, of
course, will include employees related issues, but we believe that most prominent
issues to be discussed and finalised will be wage related and other superannuation
benefits issues, this time AIUTC has been focussing and raising wage related issues in
various rounds of negotiation right from the beginning. Therefore it goes without
saying that they will come for discussion in prominent manner in coming days. In fact,
we wished that in the recently signed MOU, there should have been specific mention
about discussion on pension related issues to show gesture and reflect sentiments of
the retiree movement.
3. We request you to consider the following points while negotiating the pension
related issues
(i) Retirees have organised themselves in large number in the engineering industry
and have been agitating and struggling for resolution of their long pending demands
in the ensuing wage settlement. We request AUITC that retirees sentiments are
effectively placed before the negotiating team of IBA.

(ii) We would also request you to take AIBRF in to confidence before taking final view
on pension related issues in particular those affecting the past retirees. In this
direction, we want you to hold joint meeting with the representatives of AIBRF on the
lines of one held at Chennai in July 2013 to understand and appreciate the stand of
one another.
(iii) We have been informed by officials in DFS during our meeting with them that they
have already given direction to IBA to hold discussion with the representatives of
AIBRF on the issues concerning to retirees. Despite such clear direction, IBA seems to
be reluctant to invite us for discussion for the best reasons known to them. In this
regard we request

Chairman
Sri Y
President
Sri V
Vice President
Sir H, SIR D, Sir K
General Secretary
Sri S
We are grateful to you and all leaders of AUITC for raising our issues quite effectively
and are confident that with your good offices and efforts they will be resolved in the
settlement. However we would like to place many relevant data and information to
you as well as before IBA when we meet to show that our demands are reasonable,
logical and manageable within the affordable financial limit.
With Regards
Yours Sincerely
(XYZ)
GENERAL SECRETARY
C.C to All Constituents of AIUCT

POST MOU PERIOD:

Bosch Bengaluru plant wage settlement 2013-2016 Bosch concludes wage settlement
with plant Workmen Union Policy of fair but firm approach prevails
Company stands firm on its final wage offer made to the Union at the end of
October. Settlement ratified with referendum involving workmen and signed on
December 8, 2014

Introduction of International Industrial Engineering (IE)

standards for improving productivity Basket amount of Rs. 8,500 per month with a
performance linked incentive scheme
comparable industries

Overall benefits amongst the best in the

Settlement objectives fully achieved while also meeting

customers requirements
Bengaluru: Bosch Limiteds Bengaluru plant concluded the wage settlement, for the
period 2013-2016, with its Workmen Union- Mico Employees Association (MEA) - on
December 8, 2014. With the signing of this settlement, the prolonged illegal strike
called by the Union on September 16, 2014 comes to an end. The Workmen Union
has agreed to accept the companys last offered wage and benefits proposal that
would enable the earning potential - the monthly cost-to- company (CTC) -

of an

average workman to increase from Rs.64,000 to Rs.86,000, subject to working as per

industrial engineering standards for 7.5 hours of work in an eight-hour shift.
I am pleased to see all our workmen resume production. Despite the adverse effect
of the strike, the company has made a generous offer to its Workmen Union and
expects them to adhere to the agreed measures on productivity standards, said Dr.
Steffen Berns, managing director of Bosch Limited on the signing of the settlement.
Bosch is convinced that its highest priority is to retain the trust of its customers and
reinforce its image as a reliable business partner. Thus it is extremely important that

we have been able to serve our customers demands throughout this extended illegal
strike. The company will continue its efforts towards establishing a trustful
collaboration with its workmen and jointly finding a way to help the company in
maintaining its competitiveness. This settlement is a step towards securing the future
of our Bengaluru plant. We would like to reaffirm our commitment to India and its
strong growth potential, Dr. Berns elaborated further.
With this mutually agreed wage settlement, Bosch Limiteds Bengaluru plant will
continue to be one of the best paymasters in the manufacturing and other
comparable industries. The company has also offered to confirm 100 of the 370
temporary workmen at a new intermediate wage level despite the fact that in future it
is likely to have excess manpower due to change in product mix.
The company would like to express its gratitude to the State Government of
Karnataka, the Labor department and customers for their support throughout the
settlement process.

The company also acknowledges the unrelenting efforts of its

officers who voluntarily supported the production during the strike period, thus
ensuring uninterrupted supply of products to its customers. Our commitment to
customers is always paramount and we demonstrated the same by ensuring that the
strike had minimal impact on our supply chain. The current wage settlement
endeavors to prepare Bosch for being future ready through implementation of
sustainable measures to support the growing needs of the Indian automotive
industry, concluded Dr. Berns.