Page 260 - DCOM404_CORPORATE_LEGAL_FRAMEWORK

Unit 11: Trade Union Act, 1926

Notes
Meanwhile, the management had terminated some of the suspended employees who
later on moved to the labour court against management’s action on the presumption
that labour courts are generally sympathetic to the workers. At the same time, Trivedi
started dialogue with the external leaders to end the stalemate. The external leaders put
pressure on the management to reinstate the suspended workers. Management agreed to
make permanent those employees who were working with the company since its inception
and did it with immediate effect. Suspension of some of the workers was also cancelled.
Though these efforts helped management in streamlining the production, the attitude of
the workers could not be changed totally. The ownership spirit amongst workers could not
be developed.
The situation took another ugly turn in February, 1992 when the workers who were
suspended earlier tried to create disturbances in the plant. The discontent was further
fuelled by bad food provided to the workers in the unit’s canteen in March, 1992. Ultimately,
this led to formation of a new union “Bhartiya Yuva Sanitary and Crystallisation Mazdur

Sangh”. This union was not affiliated to any national labour union. However, the leaders

were under the influence of Bhartiya Mazdur Sangh (BMS). This union submitted a charter
of demands to the management. The demands included grain loan which was a contentious
issue because the company had never given any grain loan to the workers. The demands
were not accepted by the management. The workers gheraoed Trivedi but the management
did not accede to the demands and called the police to intervene.
On March 17, 1992, the workers went on strike, on the call of the union without giving
any prior notice. The management terminated seventeen workers during the strike. The
strike continued till May 5, 1992. The workers were not paid any wages during the strike
period. Since the workers were low wage earners, they were unable to continue the strike
for a longer period. The management used the situation to their advantage and accepted
only minor demands of sanctioning an advance of ` 500 to the workers. The workers
accepted the management decision and were willing to restart production. Management

reemployed the suspended workforce gradually over a period of fifteen-twenty days. Since,
the workers did not receive wages for the strike period, they had realised the importance
of their employment.
In October, 1993, the second agreement was signed between management and the union.
Between October, 1993 and December, 1996 the productivity and industrial relations were
improved. In 1996 the organisation started receiving export orders for its products. The
quality requirements for the export orders were stringent. Therefore, the organisation
decided to go in for ISO 9000 certification for their Rampur plant. The management

realising the importance of workers’ involvement in ISO 9000 certification process started

training workers on a continuous basis in June, 1996. The in-house training emphasised
on house keeping, general hygiene of the workers, standard operation procedure and
awareness about all kinds of losses. As a result of continued efforts, ISO 9002 certifi cation
was received by the plant in January, 1997. Meanwhile, the third wage agreement was
signed between the management and the union for a period of three years in January, 1997.
To reinforce the training process, HRD cell with well-equipped in-house training tools was
developed in January, 1998. Training programmes focussed on shop-fl oor excellence and
total productive maintenance (TPM). Quality manual for internal use was also developed.
The goals for 2000-2001 for the plant were devised as under:
1. Laying of natural gas pipeline
2. ISO 14000 certifi cation

3. Control of losses
Contd...

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