Saturday, July 30 2005 17:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Striking workers of Honda Motor Co. will resume duty from Monday (August 1, 2005) after their agreement with the management late last (July 29, 2005) night and have promised that they would not be making any fresh demand to the company for a one-year period.

The workers, however, will get to retain the Labour Union, formation of which was the bone of contention and a major issue, which led to the confrontation with the management.

"We have said that we will not be making any new demand for the next one year," Harjeet Singh, Treasurer of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's Labour Union, told to sources in New Delhi.

In a late night development, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda brokered an agreement between the agitating workers and the management of Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India.

This would see all the strikers, which includes the 50 odd suspended Line Associates and four others who were dismissed, resuming work, though the workers would not get salary for the period they were on strike.

Singh said the dismissed employees will also be giving a "separate assurance letter" to the management, apart from the undertaking all the agitators would sign before joining duty.

In the undertaking, they would promise not to engage in any kind of indiscipline and also give an assurance that they would ensure normal production.

HMSI, a market leader in the scooter segment, had a peak production capacity of about 2,000 units per day. The over month-long strike saw production levels being severely affected, and the company was even forced to suspend motorcycle production.

Company officials said they were having a production of about 800-900 units now. "This will gradually pick up as more and more workers report for duty," a senior company official said.

Giving details on the agreement, Singh claimed the company has promised to employ a family member of one of the apprentices who was killed during the agitation early in July.

Asked whether some of the workers were still "missing", as had been alleged by the Union, he said they were yet to get information on about 100-150 workers.

"We are searching for them and contacting their families and checking various hospitals," he said, adding a clear picture on this front can only be seen by Monday, when almost all the workers report for duty.