Engagement with unions could ease unrest

Experts advice against involving third parties from the beginning in negotiations

Labour strikes and lock outs had been fixtures of the manufacturing industry in India in the 1970s and 80s. The period, remembered for aggressive trade unionism and violent clashes between the aggrieved workers and authorities or the police, followed lock-outs of factories. However, there has been a change in the scenario over the years. Repeated incidents of labour agitation and strikes, however, have surfaced with regularity in recent days.

In the recent past many, such incidents have rattled consumer goods and automobile manufacturing firms in the country, the latest being a strike in the largest manufacturing unit of the Korean electronics giant LG Electronics India. The halt in production started on Monday, and has already completed its sixth day, in the Great Noida plant in Uttar Pradesh. According to members of LG Electronics Employees Union, which represents permanent workers of the firm, no dialogues have taken place between the representatives of the union and the company so far.

Currently, some 2,000 permanent and contractual workers are up in arms against the management, which has in turn sought help from the district administration to normalise the situation in the plant. According to sources, senior district officials whom the union approached for help have so far been unable to bring the two parties to the table.

According to experts on industrial relations, while serious differences between workers and managements have arisen because of reasons ranging from pay increases to bad food supplied in the canteen or improper working conditions and hours. Any such issues can be resolved through constant dialogues between the company and the aggrieved party.

"As soon as the management identifies a problem, it is necessary to initiate direct communication with representatives of employees. Involving a third party in the case may not lead to an easy solution. Government or local authorities should be made mediators only when direct communication between the two breaks down," a senior industry executive said.

The unrest, which started because of the removal of 11 permanent workers from the factory compound last week, has its roots in unfulfilled demands from workers. "We had raised demands for not more than eight hours of work a day and an average monthly salary hike of Rs 10,000 per employee," a permanent employee from the LG factory said. However, instead of meeting their demands, the management took vindictive steps, Manoj Kumar Chaubey, president of the employee union alleges. In the past, such mismatch between workers' demands and response of the company has snowballed into major crises for various firms.