The general labour relations environment may differ from
country to country, and within a country from region to region. So I will limit my
discussions to the relations environment in India.
Till
about two decades back, the government in India generally tended to favour the labour
rather than employers. As a result the the labour force had become somewhat arrogant and
careless. The labour unions were frequently able to force the management to increase
their wages and benefits without any commitment towards increasing productivity. Taking
effective disciplinary action against any unionised workmen became almost impossible.
This tended to pull down the productivity and hurt the economy as a whole. Then the
government realized the importance of productivity and private investment in rapid
economic growth of the country. As a result there has been gradual shift in the general
policy of the government, and with that the labour relations environment. The rapid
economic development has also opened up many new job opportunities and increased the
general wage levels, which acts to motivate labour force to try getting better jobs
based on their productivity rather than on just forcing employers to give them
concessions under trade union pressure.
Thus in the current
situation the trade unions continue to be strong and effective, but they are no longer
as unreasonable as they used to be in the past. The management is now also able to take
disciplinary action against erring workers. This includes dismissal where
warranted.
In last one decade many companies have
implemented the programs of downsizing, making their organizations lean. This has led to
overall improvement in productivity. It is worthwhile noting that the retrenchment has
not caused significant hardship to the labour as, due to rapid economic growth, people
have been able to find alternative employment, more in line with their
capabilities.
It is expected that this trend of more
reasonable trade unions, combined with higher wages as well as higher productivity will
continue for some more time to come
No comments:
Post a Comment