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period, hence quite many organizations under fear of being impacted by violence
agreed to recognize their union leadership and also sign settlement of wage
increase, which were much more than the industry cum region norm or
compared to their earlier settlement. Hence, the approach of violence / militancy
did bring dividend / reward to the workmen during that phase in the Mumbai,
Pune and Nasik industrial belt. There were also enterprises in Mumbai, Pune and
Nasik industrial belt which were not prepared to be pressurized by threat of
violence and unilateral demand of these two trade union leaders and fought
them and their demand, which did lead to strikes or lockouts, and these cases
also got resolved with absence of their leadership. However the enterprises
which decided to fight also suffered financial losses, some of their employees got
assaulted due to the approach of violence adopted by the leadership and also
the striking workmen lost wages and in some cases also their jobs. I had an
experience of witnessing this situation in 1980s when I was a member of the
management team that was involved in handling the 13 month lockout cum
strike led by Dr.Datta Samants union at Mukand Iron & Steel Works Ltd (now
called Mukand Ltd.) factory located at Kalwe, Thane. Most are aware of the Strike
in the Textile Mills of Mumbai in the 1980s under the leadership of Dr Datta
Samant, which ultimately led to over 100,000 workers losing their jobs and
finally closure of most of the textile mills. During these periods many executives
of enterprises in West Bengal and some other states also experienced Gheraos.
However, the 1990s and 2000s in the country saw a decline of violence and
militancy after the new economic policy of 1991, when most enterprises both in
manufacturing and service sector reduced their workforce through Voluntary
Retirement Schemes (VRS). It is true that 2010s is once again seeing signs
of industrial violence and militancy in various parts of the country.
Presently industrial violence occurrences get flashed on electronic media
immediately as news coverage of the incident, and there is limited coverage on
the analysis. Each of these occurrences has two sides and a history of earlier
actions that lead to the final incident. The killing of Awinash Kumar Dev, General
Manager (HR) of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd in August 2012 is not the only incident of
violence in this country, though this incident has generated a lot of debate not
only in the personnel professional fraternity but also in other professions.
Resorting to violence, as a methodology of resolving disputes adopted
by anybody in any area needs to be condemned and is an uncivilised
method of pressurizing and power play to achieve the end objectives. The
individuals involved in violence need to be expeditiously punished, as per the law
of the land. The legal process in our country is time consuming and quite often
the individuals involved in violence succeed in not being punished due to lack /
absence of evidence.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) which was born in 1919, as a
tripartite organization has always propagated Social Dialogue to resolve
industrial disputes. The ILO has a convention C 144 on Social Dialogue which
has been ratified by India in 1978. Social Dialogue refers to All types of
negotiation, consultation or simply exchange of information between or amongst
and in service sector reduced their work force through Voluntary Retirement
Scheme (VRS) {also referred to as Compulsory Resignation Scheme (CRS) by
trade unions}, froze recruitment of employees who would be covered under the
Industrial Disputes Act, modified the business model by outsourcing and also
engaging contractors / service providers who through their employees perform
the noncore and in some cases also the core activities, and upgraded most jobs
so that they are done by employees who were designated as officers. Also the
service sector which grew at a very fast pace also had mainly officers as
employees and engaged contractors / service providers who in turn employed
workers , and the Human Resource Management Department of these
organizations firmly believed that they had nothing to do with industrial relations
. It is true that the profile and expectations of employees in the service sector
from the Personnel Management Department is quite different from employees in
the manufacturing sector. Most of these service sector enterprises have built up
an effective personnel management systems in dealing with individual
employees who are predominantly knowledge workers and employed as
executives / officers. I do visualize that these knowledge worker employees and
contract employees engaged by service sectors initially in IT / ITeS , retail ,
insurance and later in others will form trade unions / associations to protect their
interests and collectively negotiate with the employer. In most service sector
enterprises the personnel management professionals engage the services of
consultants to deal with the application for permissions ,filing of forms /returns
with the Government Labor Department, as they consider these as transactional
activity and claim that their role is predominantly strategic. Reality of the
situation is that many of these personnel management / human resource
professionals, including those working at senior levels in service sector
organizations have limited knowledge and experience in dealing with collective
issues coming up in industrial relations involving the Government labor
department, external and internal trade unions and the labour laws of the
country.
The situation today is that in most enterprises the wages received by the
contract workforce provided by the contractors / service providers both in
manufacturing and service sector is much lower than the wages of permanent
employees in the enterprise. This disparity which is very high compared to the
1970s, 1980s and 1990s does create a lot of dissatisfaction amongst these
workers, and the trade unions demand increase in wages to have parity with the
permanent workers. Managements argue that the contract employees are
engaged as per the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, also the jobs
are not permanent and the business needs flexibility because of fluctuations in
demand. In quite many cases where the contract labour works, the jobs are of a
perennial nature and it is purely a strategy of cost reduction, as contract
employees are mostly paid the statutory minimum wage or marginally higher
and have been working for a very long time and at times with artificial breaks.
An analysis of cases where industrial violence occurred will indicate that these
could be because of non recognition of trade union, inter union rivalry, contract
workers desiring permanent jobs with the principal employer, large wage and
can analyze and understand the situation, have the art of building relationship
not only with their employees but also with the employees engaged through
contractors / service providers and unions, along with the ability of amicably
settling the disputes / differences in the interest of the organization and the
employees associated with the enterprise.
The occurrence of violence in certain enterprises, leading to loss of life, has
presently resulted in the top management of enterprises desiring to understand
the reason for such incidents and the need to take corrective action where
required. There is a realization of the need to build relationships and the reemergence of industrial relations in the enterprise in dealing with all employees
including those engaged through a contractor / service provider. Top
management of certain enterprises has started reviewing the need of having
personnel professionals in their employment, who have the experience and
competence of effectively handling the industrial relations role.
When businesses are growing and doing well it is easy to deal with employees at
all levels including the contract workforce , but when the business is not doing
well, one also needs to know the art of resolving issues involving a shrinking pie.
*President
Industrial Relations Institute of India (IRII), Former Sr. Specialist on Employers Activities for South
Asia with International Labour Organization (ILO) and Former Corporate Head of HR of ACC Ltd. and Novartis
India Ltd., E-Mail:rajenmehrotra@gmail.com