According to R. Sethuraman, Senior Vice-President of Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), Finance and Corporate Affairs, the labour laws in the country are in dire need of a reform. As per him, the central government needs to improve industrial ambience through proper infrastructure and maintenance of law and order.
On being asked whether there should be reforms in labour law and in case it is, what will be the recommendations of Hyundai; he said that it is overdue and changes have to be made on several fronts. For example, there needs to be enforcement of law and order so as to provide a protective shield to the industries against disruptive forces. He further stated that the recognition of unions by political parties should not be mandatory as it would help minimise industrial turbulence as well as politicisation.
This imposition seems to have caused a lot of industrial turbulence off-late and instead, the government should work on encouraging a balanced union that ensures proper work culture. HMIL has a notion that the workers should put in man-hours according to their pay.
He further said that the authority-in-charge should walk through the company premises to improve work ambience and should also look upon enhancing safety measures. Sethuraman also feels that the union should be only formed and registered when the minimum work strength is 30 per cent instead of the present 10 per cent.
Speaking of the current violent rift at Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki, he quoted, “All we can say is that the turn of events has been most unfortunate. Violence can never be justified, no matter how grave the dispute. A solution could have been arrived at through dialogue.”
Further commenting on the labour unrest being in the country lately, he commented that the Indian automotive industry has shown tremendous progress in last two decades; however, the labour law reforms failed to keep pace with it. As of now the permanent workers with a healthy pay lead a better and comfortable lifestyle. Though, they are sometimes emotionally manipulated by the people who are politically well connected and triggers agitation on the matters, which can be simply resolved by discussion.
Generally it happens that the contract workers find themselves trapped between top management and the protesting permanent employees of the company, in case of labour unrest. Sethuraman pointed out that at Hyundai, contract workers are not entrusted with the core manufacturing processes. Rather, they are engaged in areas like material handling, taking manufactured cars to pre-delivery inspection areas, housekeeping and security, among others.
Sethuraman further added, “We employ contract workers through reputed firms. These workers are governed by the rules and regulations of the firm they are employed with. All our contractors comply with statutory norms as prescribed under the law.”
Speaking on the position of contract workers in Hyundai Motor, Sethuraman said that the company hire its workers through well-established firm like TVS. Since the nature of work for such workers is completely different, there cannot be any parity in their wages. The average Cost-To-Company (CTC) of an average contract worker for Hyundai is Rs. 14,000 per month with all sort of statutory benefits. He further stated that at Hyundai there are more than 5,000 permanent employees including trainees and apprentices who are engaged in core production processes. While, the number of contract workers in the company stood at 3,000.
