“Working on the shop-floor is a crucial experience for anyone looking to understand industrial relations,” said J.N. Amrolia, Chief Executive Officer, Chennai Business School, and former Executive Director of HR at Ashok Leyland.

“If you are into Human Resources, you have to leave no stone unturned in getting employees to understand management, while the latter has to be constantly in touch with employees to learn their grievances,” he said.

He recalled, as someone in charge of the shop-floor in the 1970s at a factory in Taratala, West Bengal, he had to cajole, confront, threaten and plead to get workers to improve productivity. Addressing a workshop on building industrial relations skills among HR students, organised by National Institute of Personnel Management (Madras Chapter) here on Saturday, he said there is a “resurgence of industrial unrest” in the country, because of the lack of communication between labour and management.

Sridhar Ganesh, Lead Director, Diversified Business Group, Murugappa Group, said industrial relations and human resources “are essentially the same; HR is just a fashionable way of saying it.” He advised the students to go back to the fundamentals of both concepts and see for themselves the marginal difference they present.

Speaking on the legal aspects of industrial relations and their evolution, Anand Gopalan, Advocate, T.S. Gopalan & Co, said Section 33(A) of the Industrial Disputes Act has become redundant to an extent.

It was meant to protect employees from victimisation by employers but the law has outlasted its purpose. With strong, organised unions and provisions for employees to raise issues independently (Section 2(A)), the law is no longer relevant.

>bharani.v@thehindu.co.in

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