Wednesday, July 27 2005 16:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) today (July 27, 2005) resumed production at its plant in Manesar, a day after suspending operations following a clash involving employees.

"We have resumed production and operations are gradually starting," company spokesman told PTI on phone from their facility.

The company, market leader in the scooter segment, has been in the middle of a storm due to massive labour unrest, which has seen it suffer losses of about Rs 125 crore as production has been badly hit for the past one month.

The company, which has seen production levels dwindling over the last many days, had to completely halt it yesterday (July 26, 2005) on security aspects.

It is not yet clear what levels the production has managed to touch. The company has a peak production capacity of 2,000 scooters per day.

Around 1,700 of the 1,800 'Line Associates' of HMSI have joined ranks with the strikers and have refused to resume duty unless about 50 suspended and four dismissed employees are also taken back. The company has refused to do so, saying the suspended can only be taken back if they are cleared by a third-party inquiry.

The company is making up for the missing workers by taking help from vendors and involving contractual labour, apprentice and trainees in production.

The protests by company's employees turned ugly on Monday (July 25, 2005) when scores of them were injured in a clash with police while agitating against the management at Gurgaon.