Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. president Pawan Goenka, during a parliamentary hearing here on Monday, hinted that the company could start hiring back Ssangyong Motor workers on unpaid leave within the year.

The rare appearance of a foreign executive at the nation’s audit session came amid still escalating tensions between Ssangyong and fired workers since a large-scale restructuring in 2009 before the carmaker was acquired by the Indian company.

The Mahindra president said the company was considering introducing two daytime shifts following a labor-management agreement, adding that the reinstatement of all the unpaid leave workers could come after 2014. 

“Currently only one assembly line out of three is fully operated. So the entire reinstatement could complete possibly in December 2014 when the annual production reaches 190,000 units,” he said.

He also said the company could rehire some 100 fired workers after the reinstatement of unpaid leave workers even though it will make decisions based on the pending court ruling on the legality of the layoffs.

The president rejected a request to attend a parliamentary audit last month and sent a long letter saying that Mahindra acquired Ssangyong Motor legally and the restructuring before the acquisition was carried out properly.

“Mahindra paid 522.5 billion won ($470.2 million) to buy Ssangyong and has a plan to invest up to 1 trillion won in the coming three to four years. But in this situation, the investment could be withdrawn,” he said in the letter that was sent to the National Assembly’s environment and labor committee chairman Rep. Shin Gye-ryun.

Asked about any change in the investment plan on Monday, he said an investment worth 450 billion won has already been made and an additional 800 billion won will be invested in product development and production facilities in the next four to five years.

Ssangyong Motor, then controlled by China’s Shanghai Automotive, filed for bankruptcy in 2009 due to a liquidity squeeze and shed around 2,600 workers from its payroll.

Even though 455 of them were employees on unpaid leave who were supposed to be called back once the company regained traction, the promise could not be followed until Mahindra acquired Ssangyong in 2010.

Some 20 workers and family members killed themselves or died from stress-related diseases allegedly after struggling from financial difficulties, according to the labor union. Workers and opposition lawmakers here have put pressure on Mahindra to take follow-up measures.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)