At a time when the industry in the country is facing labour unrest, Chennai-based Carborundum Universal Ltd (CUMI), a part of business conglomerate Murugappa Group, is working on a human resource structure in which there will be no temporary workers in the company in next three years. The idea of reducing temporary workers is getting strong across the industry and Murugappa Group is also working on it, said a senior executive from the company.
Delivering his key note address in Tamil Nadu HR Summit 2012, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), K Srinivasan, managing director, CUMI, said: “In next three years, there will be no temporaries in our company. Ware working towards that now.”
Speaking to reporters in the sidelines, he elaborated that the plans are for the entire group and it has started the project to achieve this. Several tools would be used to bring down the number of temporary workers, including flexible production, automation, rescaling of people, bringing in new skills by increased staffing which includes upgrading and retaining a part of these workers, changing lay out of production facilities and increasing the potential of existing staff through skill development.
"There is no magic bullet for reducing the number of temporary workers. One has to use several tools at a time to implement this," he added. He said that temporaries, in various forms, are present in almost all the industries and there is a strong sentiment across the industry to reduce the temporary workers in their operations. The plans are to ensure more productivity while there would also be flexibility, he said.
Various companies including firms from the Murugappa Group would also be working on similar programmes, he added.
Speaking on the labour unrest in the country recently and the trends in human resource management in companies, Mohan Pyare, secretary, Labour and Employment Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, in his inaugural address, said that there is a need for some changes in the present trend of running the factories by temporary workers.
“The current circumstances are giving signals that there is a need to change the present trend of running the factory by temporary workers. Some changes are needed and the corrections has to be done well in time,” he added.
The industry is keen that the state should have an outsourcing policy to address skilled labour requirements in a peaceful environment, said R Dinesh, chairman of CII Tamil Nadu and joint managing director, TV Sundaram Iyengar & Sons Ltd. He added that CII has already submitted a representation with the government for an outsourcing policy and requested the government to consider it.
CII Tamil Nadu has recently conducted a closed-door meeting with the trade union leaders, in the backdrop of the labour issues in the Maruti plant in Manesar, to take a look at any such labour issues in Tamil Nadu.