Strike at Hyundai India plant ends, work resumes

A three-day strike at Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) India plant ended on Wednesday and normal production resumed after an agreement between the car maker and striking workers, a spokesman for the local unit said.

As part of the settlement, Hyundai's India unit agreed to review the dismissal of 35 of 67 sacked workers, spokesman Rajiv Mitra said.

A committee with representatives from Hyundai, the government and the workers' union has been formed to consider the reinstatement, Mitra said.

Earlier in the day, Mitra had said production at the plant in the southern city of Chennai had resumed even as a section of workers continued their strike.

Some workers at the plant had halted work on Monday demanding full re-instatement of dismissed employees in violation of orders while conciliation on the issue was under way, the company had said.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's top auto maker, is the No. 2 brand in the fast-growing Indian market, competing with Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.BO). Hyundai's Indian plant produces cars for both local and overseas markets and employs around 10,000.

The halt in production had resulted in a loss of 2,000 cars and had cost about 650 million rupees ($14 million) per day, the India unit had said on Tuesday.

In China, a strike at a parts supplier for Honda Motor (7267.T) also entered its third day, hobbling production at two of the Japanese automaker's plants there. [ID:nTOE65801O]

India's labour laws are rated by the World Bank as among the most rigid and some analysts say they hurt corporate competitiveness in Asia's third-largest economy.

While government data for strikes this year is not available, there is evidence they are on the rise and more unrest may be in store as India looks to divest stakes in over-staffed state firms to bridge a yawning fiscal deficit.

A World Bank report on the ease of doing business last year ranked India 122 of 181 countries and suggested greater flexibility in labour laws would help create more jobs and reduce poverty.