Kanika Datta: Working class in times of growth

SWOT

In a previous job, I once oversaw a tiny branch office of roughly 40 people. This office inherited not one but two trade unions from its previous owners. The total membership of these two unions put together was a princely 11 people.

Their principal job appeared to be to try and catch the new management out in a myriad petty ways.

For instance, among other things, they protested vehemently to contributing a day's salary for a colleague who died in a road accident. Their contention: they were not informed individually of this decision (the announcement was put up on the official notice board along with an option to refuse).

They also strongly objected to not being given a quota of five greeting cards per person at the new year and three complimentary publications during the Pujas, as doled out by the previous management.

All in all, the two unions seemed to have more nuisance value rather than real value, as several of its disillusioned members attested some years later.

Nevertheless, it provided a small but powerful example of why the union movement has been a signal failure in India. Both unions seemed to revel in their ability to be disruptive rather than constructive. Their inclination to engage and advise the management on HR issues""and there is plenty of scope for that""is all but non-existent.

Perhaps it is an instinctive aversion to "union-giri" as demonstrated in India thus far among India's hard-working young BPO workers that has discouraged them from joining the union movement. As a dipstick survey by a Delhi-headquartered newspaper showed, ITeS workers may not be thrilled with their working conditions, but they did not think forming a union would solve their problems.

It is possible, of course, that many of them were discouraged by the fear of retribution from their managements. But that too is a reflection of how little credibility India's union movement has achieved in its 80-year history.

The spectacular inability of unions, across the political spectrum, to achieve anything of substance for 90 per cent of India's blue-collared workers, who fall in the unorganised sector, is testimony to that. Whether it is in the traditional industries of mining, textiles, plantations or construction, the trade unions in India scarcely have a track record to boast of.

Datta Samant's intervention did textile workers in Maharashtra more harm than good, and cost India dear once the multi-fibre agreement was dismantled. In Marxist West Bengal and Kerala, unions have systematically undermined the states' competitive advantage, forcing a flight of capital""even as working conditions in private and public sector factories in these states hardly stand up to scrutiny.

In fact, the failure of the unions""affiliated to India's most powerful political parties""to enforce a safety net even now is acting as a brake on sorely-needed foreign direct investment. Many prospective investors baulk at the inability to lay off workers and exit bad investments. It is a prospect every labour minister understands but cannot sanction because of the lack of a viable social security system. The new pension system, which might partially address these issues, has been in suspended animation for some time now.

Despite the aversion in which Indian managements generally hold unions, their role in liberalising, globalising India is actually more relevant than ever before. Yet, it is ironic that their powers have actually diminished. The number of man-days lost due to strikes and lock-outs is far lower than in the bad old eighties.

Is this because India has suddenly become a workers' paradise? On the contrary. Economic prosperity and growth create their own pressures on managements to improve work practices. The inevitable manpower shortages, especially at white-collar levels, are forcing managements to bolster their HR practices in ways their counterparts of 20 years ago could never imagine.

Ironically, too, it is globalisation that has created some impulse for change. Many of India's larger carpet manufacturers have been forced to cut back on employing child labour to sustain exports in response to developed country objections. The ban on employing child labour that came into force recently is as much a result of the need to pass global scrutiny as concern for India's working children.

In industries where labour supply exceeds demand""construction being a notable example""working conditions continue to be appalling, however. Unions still have a critical role to play here. Just as Britain was forced to regulate working hours and introduce worker benefits across the board in the early part of the last century to strengthen its competitive advantage, so Indian unions could play a realistic and constructive role in raising standards for India's blue-collar workers as managements focus on squeezing productivity gains from their labour assets.

As for the ITes workers, a 30 per cent industry growth rate will prove a more effective protector of their rights than any union ever can.

The views here are personal.