2008 peaceful for industry as strikes & lockouts halve

NEW DELHI: Industrial disputes in the country such as labour strikes and management lockouts have halved in the January-November 2008 period compared with the same period in 2007, pointing towards better relations between the management and worker unions. Strikes were down 15% and the number of lockouts were down 80% during the period, as per provisional data collated by the Labour Bureau, making it the most peaceful year for industrial relations in the last four decades.

The number of industrial units affected by strikes has declined from 203 (January-November 2007) to 171 in the first 11 months of 2008. At the same time, the number of units that faced management lockouts dropped from 160 to just 30. The number of workers affected by lockouts has dropped, but those affected by strikes has almost doubled to 9.3 lakh. This could be explained by some larger organisations facing strike.

The data compiled by the ministry of labour & employment based on voluntary returns by various agencies includes industrial disputes involving 10 or more workers for both public and private firms. What is remarkable is that this is despite the slowdown in the economy which could otherwise lead to labour unrest on wage negotiations when corporate profits fall.

Consultancy firm KPMG partner and country head (people & change practice) Ganesh Shermon attributes this to companies sharing wealth with employees, ���On the flip side, when the global economic slowdown crept in, employees were caught in the midst of job insecurity and this could also have helped in reducing industrial disputes.���
Some like LG Electronics director (HR) YV Verma feel this is due to the dropping relevance of trade unions, ���Trade unions have often ended up as power lobbies, where union leaders work for their own interest. Plus, managements today are more approachable and are willing to resolve employee grievances.���

This is countered by Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) national secretary Dipankar Mukherjee. He feels the data hides more than what it reveals as, usually, employee resentment does not get reported. ���Formation of employee association is every employee���s right. However, Indian industry, especially the private sector, has deprived employees from forming such unions by suppressing them. In the past, companies have asked employees to leave if they join such associations,��� says Mr Mukherjee.

He pointed out that this is one of the reasons why the employees of IT and BPO sectors do not have a body representing them. ���If we take the current job scenario, there is a greater deal of unrest in employees. However, since an individual may not have the capacity to fight the management, many companies which are laying off employees can easily escape responsibility,��� he added.

Industrial disputes in the country had peaked in 1970s with some calendar years reporting over 3,000 strikes and lockouts. Over time, the number of such disputes have come down, largely due to drop in disputes in manufacturing and the mining & quarrying sectors. The last time disputes had risen was in the mid-1990s (1996 and 1997) when the economy had seen high growth, which was followed by a slowdown in 1997-98.