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Bajaj Auto VRS to trim workforce

Sudha Menon

PUNE, Aug. 28

TWO and three-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto Ltd, under pressure from declining sales in a recessionary market, has announced a Voluntary Retirement Scheme for 5,800 permanent workmen at its Akurdi facility. The move comes at a time when the company's s ales have gone down substantially forcing it to cutback production by approximately 30 per cent.

The Bajaj Auto Chairman and Managing Director, Mr.

Rahul Bajaj, told Business Line the VRS scheme for workman, which comes into force from September 1, is part of a comprehensive programme from BAL to trim its workforce. `` As in any other Indian company, we are overstaffed and the VRS will bring the wor kforce to a more realistic level''.

Mr. Bajaj said there was no fixed target for the current VRS scheme . ``We produced 1.43 million vehicles last year and will do the same this year too. Three years from now we hope to be touching the level of 2 million vehicles and we are going to need p eople for the job. We currently have a total workforce of 17,000 people across all cadres and the idea just now is to trim down the extra numbers'', he asserted.

Mr. Bajaj, however, said the decline in scooter sales was being offset by the company's performance in the motorcycles department, where, he asserted, BAL had moved into the number two slot in the Japanese motorcycle segment. ``We have stepped up product ion from 12,000 a month to 35,000 a month and by March we will have touched the level of 50,000 units. Besides, even with the present decline in sales of scooters, we have retained our 60 per cent marketshare'', he asserted.

``It is very difficult to predict how customer demand will shape up in the next year but the fact is that there has been a substantial decline. But we are facing the situation and have a series of launches planned before the end of the financial year, wh ich is expected to improve the situation '', he said.

In the motorcycles segment, BAL will launch the Pulsar and the premium Eliminator models before March. On the scooter front too, the company is gearing up with a couple of new launches to stem the decline in sales. First off the mark will be a geared, 4- stroke version of the Chetak, to be followed up by an all-new Bravo , both with Catalytic Covertors . `` Our new products will clear all the emission norms '', Mr. Bajaj said.