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K Giriprakash

Bangalore, Jan. 29 Toyota Kirloskar Motor has decided not to recruit any more contract workers and has let go over 400 existing contract workers as it battles a major recession in the auto industry.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director, Mr Sekhar Vishwanathan, told Business Line that the company has decided not to take any contract workers who are usually employed on the shop floor. “We have decided not to recruit any contract workers because of the slowdown in the production,” Mr Vishwanathan said. TKM had earlier said that it was reducing production in its plant by about 30 per cent till February this year. The capacity of the existing plant is about 60,000 vehicles per year.

The contract workers are employed throughout the year in Toyota Kirloskar Motor, which makes the popular Innova multi utility vehicle and the Corolla Altis sedan car. The total number of permanent employees in Toyota Kirloskar is about 3,000 including 1,300 of those who work on the shop floor.

Mr Vishwanathan said that in spite of the slowdown, Toyota Kirloskar will not delay the construction of its second plant which will become operational by the end of 2010. It will make Corolla and the new compact cars for the Indian market. Toyota Kirloskar is investing about Rs 3,200 crore in its new plant which will come up near the existing plant.

The total installed capacity of the new plant is about 1 lakh cars a year. The new plant is perhaps the only fresh project of the parent Toyota Motor Corporation that has not been shelved because of the global slowdown in the auto sector.

Toyota Kirloskar’s auto parts company located near the existing plant in Bidadi, about 40 km from Bangalore, has also reduced production by about 40 per cent. Mr Viswanathan said that as soon as the market revives, the production at both the passenger car plant as well as the auto parts’ plant will return to normal. Both Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP) are joint ventures between Toyota Motor Company and the Kirloskar Group.

TKAP, which makes manual transmission parts for seven vehicle assembly plants of Toyota Motor Corporation, employs about 550 workers.

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