Need uniform protocol for auto units operating amid curbs: Madras HC

Chennai: The Madras high court on Tuesday insisted on the need for a uniform set of guidelines to be issued to automobile manufacturing units to function following Covid-19 norms amidst the ongoing lockdown in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Madras high court on Tuesday insisted on the need for a uniform set of guidelines to be issued to automobile manufacturing units to function following Covid-19 norms amidst the ongoing lockdown in Tamil Nadu.

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The bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed this order in response to the petitioners –workers of Renault Nissan in Oragadam – who had approached the court against the employer not complying with Covid-19 protocols, particularly social distancing in the assembly line.

The court directed senior representatives of the Directorate of Industrial Safety to make further visits to the Renault-Nissan manufacturing facility as well as other automobile manufacturing units in the vicinity so that uniform guidelines can be imposed everywhere. “...and if a departure from the uniform is necessary, indicate the special reasons, therefore,” the court said. “It must also be borne in mind that the conditions prevailing in a certain manufacturing the facility may not be identical to those prevailing in another manufacturing facility and oranges and apples may not be dealt with merely by the numbers.”

In the previous hearing, the court had ordered a government official to inspect the facility on June 1 and if required, to help the workers and manufacturers reach a consensus. The state government has exempted these industries from the ongoing lockdown as they are ‘continuous process industries’ that have export commitments.

The workmen submitted on Tuesday that in a lockdown situation, where only essential production is permitted, it is unreasonable for the management to continue production at the same rate by citing export orders. The management contended that it cannot be singled out for following certain norms because its workmen desire, so a submission was made for uniform guidelines for all assembly line production of passenger vehicles.

“Pursuant to the initial disagreement between the petitioning workmen and the management at the Renault-Nissan manufacturing facility in Oragadam, production is now going on upon a tentative modus operandi on a trial basis being put in place under the aegis of a senior official of the Directorate of Industrial Safety,” the court said in its orders.