Page 199 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Global HRM

Notes further worsened and led to a go-slow movement by workers in January 1991. This affected
the productivity of the plant severely. Due to the absence of union leadership, management
too, found it difficult to control the situation, since external leaders’ influence was very
much visible and company’s HR Manager R.C. Jain refused to talk to the outsiders. He
remained adamant and left the job in March 1991 and the go-slow by the workers continued.
In another development, the incumbent, HR Manager Arun Joshi, who took over after Jain
left converted variable DA to a fixed DA rate. Since, at that time inflation was spiralling
and the rate of DA, elsewhere, was high, the workers refused to accept this provision.
Ultimately, under pressure from external leaders as well as workers of the firm, Joshi
withdrew the fixed DA and accepted the variable DA provision.
In the meantime, K. N. Trivedi took over as the unit head on May 5, 1991. Before joining
this plant, he had served the Indian Air Force for seventeen years and was a strict
disciplinarian. The organisational situation demanded quick action to stop go-slow because
the company had market share of forty per cent in both the tile categories and the demand
for tiles was still going up. The management did not want to lose a single day’s production.
In a calculated move, the management suspended thirty five workers who were on a go-
slow. This was for the first time that any worker was suspended from the plant which
instilled a sense of fear in the minds of the workers. As a result of this, workers started
working and the productivity of the plant started showing improvement.

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.
Contd...

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