In one of the worst industrial disputes culminating in the killing of
one of the top managers of the Maruti Maneswar plant, resulting in arrests and
lockout, the labor laws of the state and the country have come under greater
pressure. The killing is horrifying without doubt and this could have been
avoided if the workers were recruited under proper methods. It is without doubt
a tale of horrors as the workers having gone through enough stress and
confusion have taken to the extreme methods to vent their feelings. The union
which was the official platform for negotiation as reported in some media had
more than enough tilting in the favor of the management.
Now who is wrong here? It is not good blaming the workers mostly who
were contract laborers and the management of Maruti which has a system of
management justifying the highly disciplined, stoic and uncompromising Samurai
Japan where workers protested only with a black batch stuck on their uniform
while outwitting even the employer by working extra time free of pay in their
beloved land Nippon (Japan).These kinds of protest are foreign to our culture
and so of course to the labor culture.
Then who is to be blamed for this? The labor laws, of course, as these
are perhaps as old as the Jurassic period without much of amendments as the
latter is the need of the hour in a liberalized economy like India where more
foreign direct investments are to come. So what can be done? An example perhaps
can throw some light into it.
In a house the kitchen is the core area and a person employs a cook to
do the cooking while other employees tender the garden occasionally or daily
while the security keeps guard. The milkman and the newspaper boys are there
too yet they are not in core functioning of the house. It is inevitable that
the owner of the house keeps the area of his compound as a core area so that
the workers within it are able to function properly and that they are treated
like one family. If any one of them is unhappy the owner risks of having bad
food, security risks and a bad garden. Thus, the core area employees are
entitled to better pay and better access to areas of the house and some
secrets. As for the bad paper or the infrequent milk supply it can be substituted
easily, but not the core area unless there is total avoidance of all the help
in the house. In the light of the industry it can be very complex, but the idea
is that as far the labor law is concerned it has to identify the core
productivity area and generalize the law over it.
All routine functions of the industry are attributed as core area for
the purpose of the labor act. This would mean that the recurring activities of
the industry are all core areas for the purpose of the law. Again, recurring
activities under the act should be one such activity that is done daily or
within one whole week as a factor for considering it to be core activity. This
would mean that all employees working in core productivity area are considered
full time employees for the purpose of the act whether they are casual workers,
contract laborers, half employees or full employees.
It is not the stringency of a well laid out law that intimidates the
investors as much as the complex loosely covered and confusing law. The labor laws
must always keep a level playing field for both the workers and the management
and not set one against the other leading to no good.
Redefining Contract Laborer
If at all there is need for contract laborers then the definition of
contract laborer must be redefined to suite the present conditions of the
economy. It would be something more or less analogous to what our Father of the
Nation did when he proclaimed all the downtrodden, chaste ridden lower strata
of people of our erstwhile society as ‘Harijans’ (God’s own people). The idea
was not to bring about any sudden physical change or immediate social
improvement with regard to their conditions, but the psychological
transformation that it gave to the masses of India both in the upper strata of
the society as well as the lower strata, is a sure harbinger of good times
ahead for all.
So also there is a need to give the contract laborer a status in the
new liberalized economy. Instead of the term ‘contract laborers where all you
actually need are a few spoken or written words, a large shovel and a bulldozer
to gather all these contract laborers and then throw them inside the factory.
If that is the case then the previous ways are quite okay.
However, this is definitely not so in a liberalized market economy as
we are also changing with a liberalized mindset too where the value input of
every individual counts a great deal at the production level as well as the
society’s level. Being so, it is quite important to designate a status for the
contract laborers in the modern society. They could be called for instance
‘professional incumbents’ or such terms and then giving a legal framework under
which they will do their work. The framework as an act of law could be as
suggested below.
.
There is no indefinite contract even if the
workers are working under a contract or agreement.
.. 1.
A contract laborer or a professional incumbent
performs a task on a daily basis or weekly basis only and no more under a
particular contract. A week is a period of six working days only. A contract
however can be renewed starting from the day at a minimum of three days gap
. 2. If a contract worker works continuously without
a gap of minimum three days in any part of the whole year then he is deemed a
full employee under the act for the whole year and is liable for compensation
and pay of a full term employee
3.
A contract worker is not liable for any damage
under the act as they only perform a contractual obligation only and not fully
responsible duty whether it is skilled work, trained or not trained.
These are some of the suggestive measures that can be implemented with
definite and stringent conditions so as to make it quite apparent and
transparent that the legal side of the matter is well established.
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