• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

The Chairman of Tata Group, Mr Ratan Tata, seen interacting with senior citizens of Jamshedpur during the Founder’s Day celebrations.

Ambar Singh Roy

I wish this great Indian firm (Tata Steel) all the prosperity that it deserves and to this great enterprise every success.

And may I hope that the relations between this great house and labourers who work here under their care will be of the friendliest character…… and I have always said that my ideal is that capital and labour should supplement and help each other.

They should be a great family living in unity and harmony, capital not only looking into the material welfare of the labourers but their moral welfare also; capitalists being trustees of the welfare of the labouring classes under them…….. May God grant that, in serving the Tatas, you will also serve India and will realise that you are here for a much higher mission than merely working for an industrial enterprise”.

That was Mahatma Gandhi speaking at the Indian Association, Jamshedpur, on August 8, 1925.

Those immortal words hold true even today, more than 82 years after they were spoken. That is the spirit that drives both the management and workers in Tata Steel, a company that truly epitomises “a saga of trust and co-operation bounded by a firm belief that the quality of industrial harmony is fundamental to economic prosperity”. With such being the operating philosophy of the company’s top management, and the same percolating down to the grassroots, it is no wonder that the company can boast of industrial harmony for more than 78 years.

In fact, on February 13, 2004, the company celebrated 75 years of industrial harmony in Tata Steel.

The momentous occasion was graced by none other than the then President of India, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Few are aware that the last strike in Tata Steel was in 1928, when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was the President of The Labour Association, Jamshedpur, the erstwhile avatar of today’s Tata Workers’ Union. Netaji had then forcefully presented a case for the company’s “Indianisation”. In a letter written to the then Chairman of Tata Steel, Mr N.B. Saklatvala, on November 12, 1928, Netaji had said that “one of the most important problems before the company is that of Indianisation”. Urging the management not to renew the contracts of foreign employees, Netaji had said: “I have no doubt that if you go ahead with your policy of Indianisation, you will be able to ingratiate yourself with your Indian employees, your countrymen as well as with public leaders of all shades of opinion”. It was only after this that Tata Steel got to see its first Indian General Manager.

The Labour Association, Jamshedpur, was formed in 1920, long before the formation of other trade union bodies such as the AITUC. The historic agreement conferring on the Tata Workers Union the status of sole bargaining agent on behalf of the workers of the company was signed on August 4, 1956. The agreement paved the way for joint consultations in Tata Steel, a development that is considered to be “one of the most important landmarks in the development of modern management philosophy in India”. The unique system was based on mutual trust and partnership and provided a communication platform for discussing all issues concerning employees’ participation in the functioning and progress of the company.

Joint consultation councils have been set up at the works level, departmental level and the management level. All efforts are made to ensure that all decisions that are taken are unanimous. The involvement of all employees – Tata Steel has around 17,000 of them – in the decision-making process gives them a sense of involvement, belonging and responsibility as well. It also gives them the feeling of having contributed to some improvement activity or the other.

Emphasising the importance of joint consultations, Mr J.R.D. Tata had said: “The importance of frank and sometimes continuous discussion between people or groups is clearly seen in the very example of the splendid relationship established and maintained, year after year, between the steel company and the union at Jamshedpur. Its success and effectiveness is due largely to the continuous dialogue between the company, its workers and their union, which ensures that all matters and decisions of consequence are fully discussed and understood by both sides”.

Says Mr Raghunath Pandey, President of Tata Workers Union: “Co-operation, and not confrontation, has been the underlying philosophy of the joint consultation system at Tata Steel. It is also the reason why there have been no strikes for nearly eight decades”.

Since the advent of industrialisation, it has been commonly believed that labour laws and labour welfare measures are intended to protect the workers from company managements, with the latter being perceived as being exploitative of labour. Trade unions representing labour have often felt that confrontation with the management is the only way of ensuring that the maximum benefits can be extracted from the latter.

While some of the perception has been proved to be true in the decades gone by, the experience at Tata Steel has been entirely different. The company has put in place several welfare measures for its employees long before they were made mandatory by law. For example, Tata Steel introduced an eight-hour work schedule for its employees in 1912, long before the Factories Act was enacted in 1948. Free medical aid was made available to the company’s employees in 1915, before it was made mandatory by the ESI Act in 1948.

Medical and schooling facilities for children were provided in 1917 even as the Welfare Department was established the same year, long before the Factories Act came into being in 1948. Works Committee for handling complaints and grievances was set up in 1919 before the Industrial Disputes Act was enacted in 1947. The workers provident fund, leave with pay and women’s accident compensation schemes were introduced in 1920 while the profit sharing bonus was introduced in 1934, more than three decades before the Bonus Act came into being. Tata Steel introduced maternity benefits in 1928 and retiring gratuity benefits in 1937, a full 35 years before the Payment of Gratuity Act was enacted in 1972.

Little wonder though that Tata Steel is looked upon as not just yet another corporate entity but sort of a “welfare state kind of an entity”. For the company, its employees are its “valuable assets”. And Tata Steel has never been shy of committing resources for its employees’ welfare. “We do not calculate the costs of employee welfare”, a senior company executive had said.

More Stories on : Events | Steel | Human Resources | Tata Steel Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
ITC e-Choupal to focus on product traceability

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line