I wish to understand the provisions and clauses in Indian Labour Laws that protect Indian employees working in India from being treated irrationally or illogically. The work pressure in Telecom is increasing every year, and employees are forced to work extra hours without being given leaves, which eventually lapse by the year-end. The work culture dictates obedience to managers; otherwise, employees receive negative ratings in the Performance Management System (PMS). The work practices are not PMS-oriented; instead, they are manager-oriented, and working on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is not considered an option.
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Work pressure is increasing in modern work culture due to modern technology and downsizing of manpower. Pressure can be changed with a change in attitude. Pressure is a state of mind that should be alleviated with relaxation techniques.
The speed of communication is increasing in personal life as well as in the workplace. Workload should be understood by everyone, not just by higher-ups. Work should be shared rather than bypassed or thrown onto others.
From India, Visakhapatnam
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The speed of communication is increasing in personal life as well as in the workplace. Workload should be understood by everyone, not just by higher-ups. Work should be shared rather than bypassed or thrown onto others.
From India, Visakhapatnam
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Dear Chetan,
Yours are the woes of the fading or diminishing influence of the labor unions. After the economic liberalization that the then Prime Minister Mr. PV Narasimha Rao unleashed in 1991, businesses started growing by leaps and bounds. A lot of foreign companies entered India, and Indian workers started receiving salaries that were unthinkable in the preceding generation. However, alongside this growth, an unhealthy development took place with rampant violations of labor laws. Since business houses provided revenue in the form of direct or indirect taxes, the labor department began ignoring the excesses of the employers. Working for 10-12 hours became the norm. Employers began enticing employees with the promise of future promotions and astronomical salaries. Allured by this promise, employees started working for 16-18 hours on their own. In the guise of "commitment towards the organization," questions regarding the efficacy of these long working hours were deeply buried.
The problems you are facing are also due to the lack of a culture of assertiveness in India. Indian workers are expected to be submissive, and standing up for one's rights is considered haughty. Overall, obedience is expected, but this obedience takes a toll on the critical thinking necessary for individual personality development.
The workplace challenges you have mentioned cannot be handled single-handedly. For this, you need to have a collective voice. This can only happen if you form a labor union. However, the problem lies in the fact that the younger generation is averse to forming labor unions. They have a strong distaste for labor unions, and as a result, you and your colleagues silently suffer. While suffering has been ongoing for time immemorial, it is hard to estimate how much longer this will continue.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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Yours are the woes of the fading or diminishing influence of the labor unions. After the economic liberalization that the then Prime Minister Mr. PV Narasimha Rao unleashed in 1991, businesses started growing by leaps and bounds. A lot of foreign companies entered India, and Indian workers started receiving salaries that were unthinkable in the preceding generation. However, alongside this growth, an unhealthy development took place with rampant violations of labor laws. Since business houses provided revenue in the form of direct or indirect taxes, the labor department began ignoring the excesses of the employers. Working for 10-12 hours became the norm. Employers began enticing employees with the promise of future promotions and astronomical salaries. Allured by this promise, employees started working for 16-18 hours on their own. In the guise of "commitment towards the organization," questions regarding the efficacy of these long working hours were deeply buried.
The problems you are facing are also due to the lack of a culture of assertiveness in India. Indian workers are expected to be submissive, and standing up for one's rights is considered haughty. Overall, obedience is expected, but this obedience takes a toll on the critical thinking necessary for individual personality development.
The workplace challenges you have mentioned cannot be handled single-handedly. For this, you need to have a collective voice. This can only happen if you form a labor union. However, the problem lies in the fact that the younger generation is averse to forming labor unions. They have a strong distaste for labor unions, and as a result, you and your colleagues silently suffer. While suffering has been ongoing for time immemorial, it is hard to estimate how much longer this will continue.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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Work pressure or environmental pressure is the slogan of modern lifestyle/culture. We should take a break to relax or adjust for the same. No other option. However, you can look for a job change which is suitable to you or be on your own.
V. MURALI
From India, Madipakkam
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V. MURALI
From India, Madipakkam
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My views on the issue.
Learned senior Mr. Dinesh has explained well the prevailing culture in new age industries like IT and telecom. Depending on your establishment being a factory or a commercial establishment, a factory worker/ an employee is eligible for overtime for working beyond 48 hours a week at double the rate of ordinary wages. However, it is a simplistic statement to make because you cannot expect managements to accept your claim of sitting beyond 48 hours a week with the help of some document/ biometric recording with feelings of sanctity and dig into their pockets to pay OT. It has cost implications to the organization.
Firstly, work pressure is a subjective feeling. One employee may enjoy work pressure, and another may resent it. Overtime cannot be paid based on what an employee feels about work.
Secondly, a question arises as to how to measure what quantum of work can be done in 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week. While an employee can do a particular quantum of work in 8 hours, another employee may take ten hours to do the same quantum of work. There should be quantifiable and objective methods to measure work and time.
Thirdly, it is not the employee who can sit on his own late and then claim OT as OT tends to become a regular means of additional income if such practice is allowed. That's why OTs are discouraged by the industry. These are the issues that surround an OT issue.
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Navi Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
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Learned senior Mr. Dinesh has explained well the prevailing culture in new age industries like IT and telecom. Depending on your establishment being a factory or a commercial establishment, a factory worker/ an employee is eligible for overtime for working beyond 48 hours a week at double the rate of ordinary wages. However, it is a simplistic statement to make because you cannot expect managements to accept your claim of sitting beyond 48 hours a week with the help of some document/ biometric recording with feelings of sanctity and dig into their pockets to pay OT. It has cost implications to the organization.
Firstly, work pressure is a subjective feeling. One employee may enjoy work pressure, and another may resent it. Overtime cannot be paid based on what an employee feels about work.
Secondly, a question arises as to how to measure what quantum of work can be done in 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week. While an employee can do a particular quantum of work in 8 hours, another employee may take ten hours to do the same quantum of work. There should be quantifiable and objective methods to measure work and time.
Thirdly, it is not the employee who can sit on his own late and then claim OT as OT tends to become a regular means of additional income if such practice is allowed. That's why OTs are discouraged by the industry. These are the issues that surround an OT issue.
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Navi Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
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When we say that the personnel management of the past has no significance today and today is the period of human capital strategies, we forget to see the other side of the coin – discontentment. When we say ours is an employee-friendly organization that gives importance to work-life balance, we forget that we do not truly care about our employees. The employees, in turn, remain silent because they fear that their Performance Management System (PMS) rating will decrease, and if they take a stand against the management, they will be blacklisted by associations of employers like NASSCOM. Additionally, there seems to be a misconception that trade unions are only for manufacturing workers and not for employees in the IT or Telecom sector, where the pay is perceived to be high. However, many employees are paid even less than the statutory minimum wage rates without adhering to the Payment of Wages Act. Individual bargaining, rather than collective bargaining, plays a significant role in new-generation industries, which is a primary cause of employee discontentment.
Forming a trade union is not a wrong decision, and employers should acknowledge that employees turn to such platforms for collective bargaining due to dissatisfaction. Therefore, if you feel that the management is unjust, you need to speak up, and forming or joining a trade union provides a better avenue than addressing issues individually.
Limiting working hours to 8 or 9 hours is crucial for maintaining our health and should be considered a basic right. It is important to advocate for this.
Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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Forming a trade union is not a wrong decision, and employers should acknowledge that employees turn to such platforms for collective bargaining due to dissatisfaction. Therefore, if you feel that the management is unjust, you need to speak up, and forming or joining a trade union provides a better avenue than addressing issues individually.
Limiting working hours to 8 or 9 hours is crucial for maintaining our health and should be considered a basic right. It is important to advocate for this.
Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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Dear friends,
The problems raised by Mr. Chetan Agrawal are entirely of different natures, which I see from different perspectives. Performance Measurement System (PMS) is a scientific way of assigning KRAs time ahead for the next year related to individual and Team KRAs. When you know that for a specific but difficult KRA, the stretch factor is also high, it's not justified to name it "work pressure". There are star performers who burn the midnight oil and excel in their performance, enjoying challenges at workplaces. If they are not recognized, and are treated at par with average employees, how can HR justify PMS objectivity? The team KRAs are really providing far better opportunities for champions to learn, grow, and develop real leadership qualities.
Regards,
RDS Yadav
From India, Delhi
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The problems raised by Mr. Chetan Agrawal are entirely of different natures, which I see from different perspectives. Performance Measurement System (PMS) is a scientific way of assigning KRAs time ahead for the next year related to individual and Team KRAs. When you know that for a specific but difficult KRA, the stretch factor is also high, it's not justified to name it "work pressure". There are star performers who burn the midnight oil and excel in their performance, enjoying challenges at workplaces. If they are not recognized, and are treated at par with average employees, how can HR justify PMS objectivity? The team KRAs are really providing far better opportunities for champions to learn, grow, and develop real leadership qualities.
Regards,
RDS Yadav
From India, Delhi
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It is okay that we have certain KRAs, and it is on the basis of these KRAs that we structure the PMS objectives. But the objectives should be SMART, and if not, the entire PMS will become useless. Therefore, if the targets are not achievable, do not fix those targets. It should not be to create an image for HR but to see whether employees get any benefit. Remember that we have offered only CTC to them and not Benefit to Company or BTC.
Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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Thanks to all for sparing time and sharing the golden words on this subject. My past experiences with ITES & Telecom companies are that the PMS is a tool, not a method to inculcate any sense of performance measurement. In today's fast moving time, where revenue growth is challenged every quarter - annual PMS as a tool/method becomes joke. And since, organization can’t do away with it, it has become a playground. PMS has become like carrot - like you do this to get score, else negative ratings. Pile of work is so much that there is always a pile of work which is pending and stinking, and when same comes to light, the focus on PMS is shown again. I consider, some people don’t have enough of what it takes to move organizations/ departments/ functions towards results/ success, and hence they abuse PMS and annual assessment method.
Long extended work hours, on routine fashion, can’t be accepted, while the personal & family life goes completely unnoticed.
I continue to wish to understand if there is a way to at least empower ourselves (employees), if not unions. Yoga and all are the ways to accept the work pressure and digest, and release same.
After all, most large enterprises have to obey Laws.
Regards
Chetan Agrawal
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Long extended work hours, on routine fashion, can’t be accepted, while the personal & family life goes completely unnoticed.
I continue to wish to understand if there is a way to at least empower ourselves (employees), if not unions. Yoga and all are the ways to accept the work pressure and digest, and release same.
After all, most large enterprises have to obey Laws.
Regards
Chetan Agrawal
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Hi Chetan,
Its PMS normally settles down over a three-year time. Bosses also learn en route as to what is members' stake in terms of all of them using combined potentials for the organization's success and individual's succession. If not there, then outside. The whole game of work performance is one of total transparency and objectivity in the system.
The next generation of futuristic organizations has already been marching with SMART KRAs, along with other manufacturing tools. Employees are practicing Six Sigma, Lean management, TPM, etc., and are being encouraged to work using Yoga, fitness clubs, cafeterias, etc., which has been proving to be the right course for all of us.
Best regards, RDS Yadav
From India, Delhi
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Its PMS normally settles down over a three-year time. Bosses also learn en route as to what is members' stake in terms of all of them using combined potentials for the organization's success and individual's succession. If not there, then outside. The whole game of work performance is one of total transparency and objectivity in the system.
The next generation of futuristic organizations has already been marching with SMART KRAs, along with other manufacturing tools. Employees are practicing Six Sigma, Lean management, TPM, etc., and are being encouraged to work using Yoga, fitness clubs, cafeterias, etc., which has been proving to be the right course for all of us.
Best regards, RDS Yadav
From India, Delhi
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