Indian car maker Maruti fires 500 workers over riot

India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki said on Thursday that more than 500 workers had been sacked after staff rioted at a plant near New Delhi last month in violence that left one manager dead. "Of the 1,500-odd regular workers, we have issued notices dispensing with their services to 500-odd so far," company chairman RC Bhargava told reporters. During the riot on July 18, workers chased managers with iron rods and car parts, attacking them and torching equipment in unrest triggered by a row between an employee and a supervisor, according to witnesses. A personnel manager, whose legs were broken, was unable to flee and burned to death in an office area. Nearly 100 other supervisors were injured. Bhargava said that production, which was halted at the Manesar plant after the riot, would be partially re-started on Aug.21 with 200 anti-riot police on duty inside the factory. "We have identified people who we believe were involved in the violence and we have lost confidence in these workers and they cannot be taken back," he said. "We intend to start step by step. We need to see how the production goes, what the workers and manager (do) and how the whole thing builds up," he added. "We believe these measures will create a safe environment and so we have decided to lift the lockout." Maruti is majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor which receives more than a quarter of its revenues from India. The Indian unit, the country's largest carmaker by sales, has lost some $9 million a day from the plant shutdown, analysts calculate. The plant has a history of industrial disputes but none as violent as the July riot which shocked corporate India.