Industrial disputes show steady fall

Strikes involving large numbers of workers ensure the number of mandays lost does not come down as fast.

The number of strikes and lockouts in the country has witnessed a slow but steady decline over the past decade.

From 1,097 in 1998, the number of such disputes fell by more than half to 440 in 2006, according to the Ministry of Labour and Employment data. And if the trend continues, 2007 may see the number of industrial disputes touch a new low as just 45 cases have been recorded during the first four months of the year.

Interestingly, the Labour Bureau data show that the number of mandays (measurement based on a standard number of manhours in a workday) lost due to disputes has not come down as significantly.

The country, on an average, lost 25.4 million mandays of work annually between 1998 and 2006, which might have affected its industrial output.

"One of the reasons for this can be the strikes in sectors like banking and telecommunications. Even a one-day flash strike means lakhs of employees abstain from work, though it will register as only one strike," said an official.

Industrial relations experts say the number of labour disputes are falling because of emergence of the new economy, where labour unions are yet to establish themselves. While the unions are strongly entrenched in labour-intensive manufacturing sectors, they are conspicuously absent in fast-growing areas like IT and biotechnology.

"As a result, the unions, which were strong at the time of the manufacturing boom, have become weak. For example, attempts to form unions in the IT sector have met with a very poor response," said an expert.

Others, however, feel this is because industry has made serious attempts to improve relations with the workers.

"Companies have moved from maintaining good industrial relations to managing good human resources. The focus now is on skill-oriented work culture," a senior functionary of the All-India Organisation of Employers told Business Standard.

More and more trained graduates were taking up blue-collar jobs and were more interested in work than strikes, he added.

Trade unions, however, say the disputes, particularly strikes, are on a decline because of the absence of redressal and reconciliation mechanisms in most companies.

As a result, workers feel too threatened to speak out against their employers, they say. "Workers are in a vulnerable position. Moreover, with contract labour and outsourcing becoming the norm, these people do not even have the right to issue a strike notice. Liberalisation has pushed workers against the wall," said a member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

"The employer even has the choice to announce a lockout when he realises he has an issue that cannot be sorted out. While workers are left in the lurch, the owner sets up a new company with the profits he has accumulated," he added.

Though there has been a decline in the number of strikes, the country witnessed some major strikes between 2004 and 2006, like those in Honda, Escorts, Apollo and Skumars factories.