Click to play videoManesar: It has been over a month since 2000 workers at Maruti's Manesar plant have been engaged in a deadlock with the management.
The workers have been without pay for two months.
After a four-year-long stint as an auto assembly plant expert in Maruti, Harsh Soni is now a disillusioned man. The 29-year-old is sitting in protest at the Manesar plant, refusing to sign the 'goodwill conduct' bond offered by the country's biggest car-maker. He calls the bond similar to signing one's own death warrant.
When a similar agitation took place in June earlier this year, Maruti had deducted 26 days of salary for 13 days of no work – two days of salary against each day of strike.
"We are facing so much difficulty," said Soni.
Another employee, Arun, from a nearby Yamuna village in Haryana has already slashed his daily expenses. Although Arun wants to return to work, he doesn't want to sign the bond.
Harsh and Arun's story is also the story of as many as 2000 workers.
The unrest was triggered by the wage disparity between permanent and temporary employees.
At Maruti's Manesar plant, a permanent employee earns about Rupees 18,000 while a contract labour is paid just about Rs 5000.
For almost a month, the employees have been agitating, demanding that the company recognises their union. With Maruti in no mood to relent, there seems to be no end to the standoff.
However, rather than signing the goodwill conduct despite economic difficulties, the employees feel that the agitation must go on.
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