Moser Baer workers go on strike demanding wage hike

NEW DELHI: Even as the logjam at Maruti's Manesar plant continues, another strike has commenced at solar panel and CD-maker Moser Baer's Noida unit, where workers are demanding a revision in wages and bonuses. "Unfortunately, a very small group of approximately 150 associates from the packaging section of one of our optical disc plants, out of around 10,000 associates, have come up with unreasonable demands," Moser Baer India CEO (Blank Optical Media & Consumer Electronics) Bhaskar Sharma said. However, he said work has not stalled and the company is in discussions with the protesters since there is no union representing the agitating employees.

"We are currently in discussion with them and looking at their concerns. Our manufacturing plant is in operation," Sharma said, adding that the management has always enjoyed a very cordial relationship and has maintained high engagement levels with all its associates. Sources said the number of striking employees was as high as 1,000, but the same could not be verified.

Meanwhile, none of the striking employees at Moser Baer could be contacted for their version of the events. The company's revenues for the year ended March 31, 2011, stood at 2,682.93 crore, of which the storage media products business contributed 1,633.10 crore.

The company claims to be the world's second-largest manufacturer of optical media solutions, accounting for 16% of development, manufacture and supply of optical media across the globe.

Moser Baer forayed into the burgeoning domestic optical storage market in India with the launch of its label in 2003.

The company manufactures the entire spectrum of optical storage media products, including recordable compact discs (CD-R), rewritable compact discs (CD-RW), recordable digital versatile discs (DVD-R), rewritable digital versatile discs (DVD-RW) and blue laser discs (HD-DVD and Blu-ray) and has an annual production capacity of over 3 billion units.

Workers at Maruti Suzuki's plant are on strike demanding the reinstatement of 1,200 casual workers. They are also demanding that 44 permanent workers, who were suspended after an agreement signed to end a 33-day stand-off on October 1, should be taken back.