Reminders of Past- Sleep and get a pink slip
Posted : January 21, 2005 at 6:33 am [IST]
On January 20, Supreme Court okayed the dismissal of a Bharat Forge employee. His offence- ‘found to be sleeping during office hours’ reminded me the old days of HM of late 1960s and early 70s. I was directly dealing with labour force. With my excitement to succeed and make a name, I used to work for about 15-16 hours every day for all the 7 days of the week. I wanted to change the world. Sleeping during duty hours was regular. Supervisors were helpless. Nothing could be done in those. It used to be a major misdemeanour even in those days legally. But the process of taking disciplinary action used to so annoying and time taking that hardly we used to take that course. Rather, it was much better to live with that and overlook such people. All supervisors were expected to wake up the workers after recess and almost physically forced them to work. Naturally during the process one of the casualties used to be the quality of production. No outsider could appreciate. The union was strong and getting stronger. They hardly appreciated the link of productivity with prosperity. As per them all their hard work only benefits blood-sucker employer. West Bengal went down in the perception of entrepreneurs because of the excesses of workers and the blind protection union leaders. Even today when I pass through Salt lake Software Sector, I get really pained with those red flags fluttering in many places and a lot of posters about some or the other strikes and ‘bandh’. Bengal lost between 1965 and 1998 all that could have made it the most prosperous state of the country because of left ideology. I wish some Budha would have replaced Jyoti much earlier. At least Bengal could have been saved.
Back to the story, the Supreme Court has upheld the decision of Bharat Forge Company Ltd (BFCL) to terminate the services of one of its employees who had made a habit of sleeping during work hours. Uttam, a helper in the company, was found fast asleep at his work place on August 26, 1983. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated. He was found guilty and was dismissed from service on January 17, 1984 He went to the Maharashtra Labour Court, which directed him to be reinstated with 50 per cent back wages. After an an appeal, the industrial tribunal set aside the court order and upheld the dismissal. But the Bombay High Court reversed it and directed payment of a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh to the worker and his reinstatement. However, on BFCL’s appeal, a Supreme Court Bench came with its verdict that reads- “In the facts and circumstances of the case and having regard to the past conduct of Uttam, we cannot say that the quantum of punishment imposed upon him was wholly disproportionate to his act of misconduct.” It took 11 years to come to this conclusion and that also not in clear language.
But that is not he complete story. It covers perhaps only what the company’s advocate told the reporter after the SC judgment. Remember, the case relates to 1983. BFL was not then the second largest forging company of the world as it is today. It was a small though growing company with hardly any qualified supervisors and good HR team to back them. The offence reported must not be Uttam’s first one. He must have multi-dimensional offences in his kitty. I am reminded of one similar helper of HM who became a nuisance. He had his personal ambition. And he succeeded to get his promotion as operator on the best paying machine because of his so called association with union biggies. Uttam would have been arrogant and adamant too. BFL must have isolated him from the union before pursuing the legal case even at some cost. Like most of the companies BFL in those days must not have some effective and transparent grievance handling system in place. Supervisors and managers might be running the plant as king. You can’t know many things. However, one thing is true. The indiscipline must be curbed right when it starts. Union must be mature enough to agree for that and the management must not be partisan in executing that. Immature trade unions and compromising management have done an immense harm to manufacturing sector particularly. UK and USA where the trade unions were born have gone out of the sector. Trade Unionism affects the productivity and quality of the produce. There are hardly any critical studies on it. The rise of Japan and then China in manufacturing can be attributed to lack of the trade unions of the types we have seen growing in our country. Beyond a point, the executives of the union not only become autocrat but corrupt too.
How can’t the labour laws be changed? Only a big company like BFCL can pursue a case to that end. Wherever the union that are manned by arrogant leaders, a company can hardly do anything without taking them on its side and naturally that happens at a cost of regular ransom money to key leaders. How are they different from extortionists? And they are the people who decide the result of elections even for national parliament.
- Indra
Category: Industry/Management |
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