Toyota India suspends 17 workers

Efforts of the state labour office to end the impasse did not yield result as the union and management did not budge from their respective stand. “There was no charge-sheet against them as per the state labour laws prior to suspension. We have sought the state government's intervention for lifting the lockout and withdrawing the suspension orders,” Mr. Kumar said.

Re-conciliation talks to lift the four-day lockout are likely to continue on Thursday.

The Japanese global firm's Indian joint venture's plants are located at Bidadi, about 30 km from this tech city, with a capacity to rollout about 700 cars a day, with an installed production of 310,000 units annually.

Of the 6,400 employees, about 4,000 of them are union members and the remaining are on contract in both the factories.

This is the second time lockout was declared after 2006 over dismissal and suspension of some employees then.

Toyota holds 89 percent equity in the joint venture with the remaining 11 percent by the Pune-based Kirloskar group.