The industrial strife in Manesar is not just about how anarchic Young India can be. It is also about the need to revamp labour laws.
A striking thing about last week’s violence at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory in Haryana, which claimed the life of a senior executive and injured scores of other management personnel, is the age profile of the labour force involved. The bulk of the workers at the company’s Manesar plant are in their early-20s and a good chunk outside the company’s rolls. This is in contrast to Maruti’s older Gurgaon plant, where the average age of workers — a larger number of whom are permanent — is close to 40, and they are mostly married with children. The fact that Maruti’s labour troubles, going back to strikes last June and September, have been concentrated at Manesar, and not the relatively more peaceful nearby Gurgaon unit, provides valuable lessons both from a demographic as well as industrial relations perspective.
The first aspect concerns the perception about India hitting a demographic ‘sweet spot’ that could potentially confer a competitive advantage, similar to what China enjoyed from the 1980s through the last decade. The average Indian was aged 25.1 years in 2010, which is projected to rise only gradually to 31.2 years in 2030. The corresponding median for China’s population had already touched 34.5 years in 2010 and is seen to cross 40 years by 2025, eroding the edge derived from a predominantly young and more productive population. A growing pool of young workers can, no doubt, be a great source of economic dynamism, since they are in a position to both earn and spend. But as Manesar shows, young workers can also be impatient, aggressive and irreverent towards authority, which sometimes extends to being provoked to commit extreme acts of violence. The fact that as contract employees, they would be doing jobs largely identical to those carried out by permanent workmen earning far more, doesn’t help the situation either. All this, if anything, points to the flip side of having 10 million new entrants to the country’s work force every year: In the absence of sufficiently remunerative and fair job opportunities, these youngsters can be a source of anarchy rather than harbingers of any ‘demographic dividend’.
But Manesar also highlights the urgency for reform of labour laws, that currently confine themselves to merely stipulating against employment on a contract basis. The stricter enforcement against casual employment must be balanced with provisions that make lay-offs of permanent employees more possible during periods of downturn. The absence of this now is really at the heart of a corporate preference for keeping the size of its permanent workforce to a bare minimum. The rest are hired on contract and adjusted, depending on the ebbs and flows of the business cycle. A shift away from such a regime is what may be best for Young India as well.
Keywords: industrial strife in Manesar, anarchic Young India, revamp labour laws, Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory
Comments:
If the young workers use violent methods to seek reddressal of their grievances it is very unfortunate. In any case, lawlessness and violence can neither be justified nor do such methods solve any problem. Workers must learn to exercise restraint. It must be recognized that issue of contract staff employment in many companies (Maruti Suzuki included) has become a very contentious one, with arguments and counter arguments for and against such employment. If employing contract staff is necessary, it is then obligatory on the part of employer to ensure that the terms of employment of contract staff do not become a cause of discontent among the contract staff. On the other hand, it is necessary for the contract employees to understand why companies prefer to employ contract staff on such a massive scale. If the existing labour laws are forcing the employers to employ contract staff, government must engage with industry leaders and labour unions and seek viable solutions.
The Govt keeps sitting on labour reforms that force industry to hire casual labour to circumvent the archaic labour laws that reward lazy and unionised workers and punish productive enterprenures who create jobs. till this is remidied, instances like that at maruti will continue to reoccur. A lousy political leadership in the country is held to ransom by small vocal minority is detrimental to the aspirations of millions of youth who will be joininig the list of jobless unless someone picks up the courage to act.
One way of solving the contract verses permanent labour is to make compulsory for companies to pay 25% more salary for contract labour for same type of job. may be some permanent workers may opt for contract labour position.
All things said and done, why differentiate between a permanent worker and a contract worker of experience. both should be given the same salary. The contract labour|worker may not other benefits as the labour or workers on the permanent roll. They should be treated equally in the matter of monthly salaries. the company concerned must pick and choose the right persons when they engage casual workers from time to time. in the process if the company makes a crore of two less profit what is the big deal. workforce satisfaction is more important.
equal pay for equal work and the suitable amendments in the labour enactments to give right to employers to lay-off the employees and a blend of middle and young employee population would considerably eradicate such a jungle violence in the industry
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