Jamshedpur, Oct. 23: Less than a week before Diwali, Tata Motors pruned its workforce here by 400 today with an apparent assurance that they would be recalled once production target increases.

Company officials claimed that the workers — all temporary — would be taken back on work as soon as the situation improves. According to them, disengaging temporary workers when production is on a downward swing is a normal process in the company. The decision to lay off temporary workers was also conveyed to the officials of Telco Workers’ Union.

The company said that the production had plummeted in recent times, compelling it to downsize the strength of temporary workers twice in the past six days. On Saturday, the commercial vehicle manufacturer had laid off 300 such workers. The Jamshedpur plant of the Tata Motors employs some 3,600 temporary workers.

“The production target of chassis is revised each month in view of demand. The decision on number of temporary workers in a particular month is taken according to new production target,” said Chandrabhan Singh, the general secretary of the union.

“Till last month, we were assembling some 8,000 chassis in the Jamshedpur plant. However, the production target for this month has come down to 5,000 chassis, which would require lesser number of temporary workers,” Singh added.