Mangalore: United Toyota employees go on strike against firm

Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)

Mangalore, Jul 22: Chaos prevailed at United Toyota at Padil here on Monday July 22 after disgruntled employees went on strike against the management over various issues.

The employees claimed that the company officials, particularly general manager Sadanand, service manager Ashwin and body manager Ravindra Bangera had been playing politics and not treating the employees as they should.

They alleged that there was groupism in the firm with one group associating itself with the general manager. "The employees are ill-treated and each and every minor mistake is made a big issue and the erring person is transferred to another department. Also salary is deducted for every small mistake without prior notice," they alleged.

Expressing disappoinment over the functioning of the management, one of the employees said that there had been no increment in salaries for a long time and alleged that one of employees had died because he was not given advance salary for treatment when he requested.

"An employee who was sick had requested his salary in advance so that he could afford medical treatment, but his request was rejected. He later died as he had no money for treatment," he said.

The protestors demanded that the managing directors of the company meet them personally.

One of the managing directors, Prabhakar Rao arrived at the spot along with other higher officials and spoke to the protestors and listened to their demands.

However, minor tension prevailed when he ordered the media to leave the premises, however, the employees insisted on media's presence. Rao held a meeting with the protestors after the media left for a brief period.

Speaking to media persons later, Rao said that the other MDs of the company, Ganesh Rao and Ramgopal Rao, were out of station and that they were unaware of the issues. "We came to know about these issues only today. The problems will be brought to the notice of the other MDs and the matter would be resolved in the next four to five days," he assured.

"The main problem has been lack of communication," he added.

Meanwhile, customers who had come to get their vehicles serviced also had a tiff with the general manager as the work had stopped because of the strike. A couple of tourist vehicle drivers said that they had been hired on duty by tourists and needed their vehicles serviced immediately. However, because of the protest their vehicles remained untouched, they said.

Mangalore rural police arrived at the spot and brought the situation under control.