Mumbai: Toyota Kirloskar Motor announced today the lifting of the lockout at its plant in Bidadi, near Bangalore, with effect from tomorrow, in response to a request by employees who want to return to work. The company said in a statement that it would resume production on Saturday at the plant.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, is the joint venture between Toyota Motors with 89 per cent control and the Kirloskar group, which holds the remaining 11 per cent. The management control is with the Japanese auto giant.

A R Shankar general manager of the Bidadi plant, said the management had decided to lift the lockout, after workers expressed willingness to return. However, employees would first have to sign a good conduct undertaking to maintain discipline and ensure full production, he said.

The union representing the workers said that it would have to meet to discuss whether to accept the company''s proposal. About 60 per cent of the factory''s 2,350 workers are part of the plant''s union. A meeting of the Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees Union is slated to be held today to decide on its response to the company''s announcement on lifting lock-out and resuming production a union official said.

The factory has maintained partial production with help of its 800 non-unionised staff, though output had fallen to 30 vehicles daily from 92.

The plant had been shut down for a fortnight when workers struck work on January 6, this year, following the dismissal of three workers the previous day. Ten others workers were also reported to have been suspended, pending investigation into acts of misconduct, including an assault on a supervisor in 2004.

Workers are reported to have blockaded the road to the factory two weeks ago, demanding revocation of the dismissals. The management, however, did not yield to the union pressures and instead describing the strike as unjustified and illegal, said it had initiated disciplinary action against some workers for violent incidents during the strike. It has also refused to take back the three employees whose dismissal sparked the labour dispute.

The lock out was declared after the striking workers reportedly threatened to blow up LPG storage tanks on the factory premises. During the lockout period, conciliatory efforts initiated by the state labour department to resolve the dispute had failed.

The company has a five per cent market share of country''s passenger car segment and makes the multi-utility vehicle Innova (42,000 units of which rolled out from this plant in 2005) and the luxury segment Corolla. It also imports the Camry sedan and sports utility vehicle Prado market.

Toyota started its Indian operations in 1997 with an investment of Rs700 crore, which has grown to Rs1,500 crore on developing a production capacity of 60,000 units annually.

Japan is the fourth-largest investor in India, with about 250 companies in the country having invested about $2 billion in equity since 1991. The strike and lockout is the second major industrial unrest in the Indian unit of a Japanese auto company in six months. In July 2005, a labour dispute at the Indian motorcycle and scooters unit of Honda Motor Co turned violent with workers clashing with the police at the plant in Gurgaon near New Delhi, resulting in a production loss estimated at around Rs250 crore.