The Hindu Business Line : Right to fire

ONE of the reasons making India an unattractive destination for foreign investment to the needed extent is the Government's hesitation to grasp the nettle of labour reforms. India's labour laws are heavily loaded against employers, rendering them helpless in dealing with the impudence, intransigence and indiscipline of employees in the organised sector.

The sight of trade unions and employee associations is set exclusively on extracting by fair means and foul as much as possible from the managements by way of salary hikes, perks and fringe benefits unrelated to productivity or performance.

Even highly paid bank employees and airline pilots think nothing of holding society to ransom by resort to work-to-rule and strikes. The opposition to disinvestment and privatisation is also largely because of a fear that it will curb the freedom of employees to go on a rampage with impunity.

Apart from shrinkage of investment, the obstructionist and intimidatory tactics of employees also aggravate unemployment: Who will hire more workers, even where needs and opportunities exist, and wittingly court further harassment and blackmail?

A similar situation in Britain was brought to an end by Prime Minister, Ms Margaret Thatcher, with an iron hand, forcing the all-powerful Trade Union Congress and its hostage, the Labour Party, to undertake a thorough overhaul of their policies and practices.

In present-day China too, ruled by the Communist Party, pay has been linked to performance, and workers and employees have to strictly conform to norms of productivity and discipline, on pain of losing their jobs, without any further appeal.

In this context, three recent judgments of the Supreme Court upholding the dismissal of employees on grounds such as sleeping in the workplace, using abusive language against the superior and assaulting the supervisor must have come as a soothing balm to the bruised souls of the long-suffering heads of enterprises in the private and public sectors.

The existing labour laws need a radical review to hold the scales even between the employees and employers, and to lay down clear criteria for enforcing productivity and discipline.

If the US, with its high democratic credentials and libertarian traditions, can do with hire-and-fire, why not India?

B.S. Raghavan

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