Study of Factories Act Provisions and Industrial Relations in Manufacturing Sector

Transcription

1 Journal of Public Policy and Governance Vol. 1, No. 1, 2014, Study of Factories Act Provisions and Industrial Relations in Manufacturing Sector Neeraj Kumari 1, Rajnish Ratna 2 Abstract The organizations of the manufacturing sector have to update themselves and insure proper compliance of the provisions of the Factories Act The aim of the research is to study health, safety and welfare provisions of Factories Act 1948 and finding the relationship of these provisions on industrial relations in manufacturing sector of Gujarat. It is a descriptive research. First hand data was collected through designed questionnaire from two leading metals manufacturing companies of Gujarat. Using convenience sampling technique data has been collected from 100 participants. From the analysis it is found that majority of the respondents are satisfied with health, safety and welfare provisions practiced in the manufacturing sector. These provisions have a very high relation with Industrial Relations. Therefore strict administration policies have to be undertaken by the companies to monitor these provisions and have to be monitored on a greater scale. Keywords: Factories Act 1948, Health, Safety, Welfare, Industrial Relations. JEL classification: K31, I10, I13, I30, L52 1. Introduction Industrial relations are a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship. Industrial relations are increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labor relations and believe that industrial relations only studies unionized employment situations, but this is an oversimplification. Industrial relations have three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethics. In the science building face, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. In this vein, industrial relations scholarship intersects with scholarship in labor economics, industrial sociology, labor and social history, human resource management, political science, law, and other areas. In the problem solving face, industrial relations seek to design policies and institutions to help the employment relationship work well. In the ethical face, industrial relations contain strong normative principles about workers and the employment relationship, especially the rejection of treating labor as a commodity in favor of seeing workers as human beings in democratic communities entitled to human rights."the term human relations refer to the whole field of relationship that exists because of the necessary collaboration of men and women in the employment process of modern industry." It is that part of management which is concerned with the management of enterprise - whether machine operator, skilled worker or manager. It deals with either the relationship between the state and employers and workers organization or the relation between the occupational organizations themselves. Industrial relations scholarship assumes that labor markets are not perfectly competitive and thus, in contrast to mainstream economic theory, employers typically have greater bargaining power than employees. 1 Assistant Professor (Humanities & Management) Faculty of Engineering & Technology Manav Rachna International University Faridabad, Haryana, India 2 Assistant Professor (HR & OB) Amity Business School Amity University, Noida Uttar Pradesh, India 2014 Research Academy of Social Sciences 45

2 N. Kumari & R. Ratna Industrial relations scholarship also assumes that there are at least some inherent conflicts of interest between employers and employees (for example, higher wages versus higher profits) and thus, in contrast to scholarship in human resource management and organizational behavior, conflict is seen as a natural part of the employment relationship. Industrial relations scholars therefore frequently study the diverse institutional arrangements that characterize and shape the employment relationship from norms and power structures on the shop floor, to employee voice mechanisms in the workplace, to collective bargaining arrangements at a company, regional, or national level, to various levels of public policy and labor law regimes, to "varieties of capitalism" (such as corporatism), social democracy, and neo-liberalism). When labor markets are seen as imperfect, and when the employment relationship includes conflicts of interest, then one cannot rely on markets or managers to always serve workers interests, and in extreme cases to prevent worker exploitation. Industrial relations scholars and practitioners therefore support institutional interventions to improve the workings of the employment relationship and to protect workers rights. The nature of these institutional interventions, however, differs between two camps within industrial relations. The pluralist camp sees the employment relationship as a mixture of shared interests and conflicts of interests that are largely limited to the employment relationship. In the workplace, pluralists therefore champion grievance procedures, employee voice mechanisms such as works councils and labor unions, collective bargaining, and labor-management partnerships. In the policy arena, pluralists advocate for minimum wage laws, occupational health and safety standards, international labor standards, and other employment and labor laws and public policies. These institutional interventions are all seen as methods for balancing the employment relationship to generate not only economic efficiency, but also employee equity and voice. In contrast, the Marxist-inspired critical camp sees employer-employee conflicts of interest as sharply antagonistic and deeply embedded in the socio-political-economic system. From this perspective, the pursuit of a balanced employment relationship gives too much weight to employers interests, and instead deep-seated structural reforms are needed to change the sharply antagonistic employment relationship that is inherent within capitalism. Militant trade unions are thus frequently supported. 2. Literature Review Kaufman (2010) identifies the core principle that forms the theoretical and policy foundation for the field of industrial relations labor is embodied in human beings and is not a commodity and argues that the field s two central dependent variables are labor problems and the employment relationship. Reade and McKenna (2009) found that manufacturing businesses increasingly move labor-intensive production to emerging economies, it is important for international managers to understand the sociopolitical factors that shape the climate in which management and labor interact. Akintayo (2010) examined the effect of privatization of public enterprises on industrial relations practice in a mixed recessional economy. Privatization policy implementation should be normally be designed to guarantee workers job security, while pragmatic efforts towards sustaining the level of efficiency and productivity attained by the privatized public enterprises should always be given apriority. Lansbury and Wailes (2010) report the preliminary findings of a study of employment relations in the automotive assembly industry in seven countries. It provides evidence that the impact of globalization on employment relations varies systematically across liberal, coordinated and, to a lesser extent, Asian market economies. Yadav (2007) concluded that some of the key industrial indicators, such as fixed capital, working capital, total output and net value added both at the state and national level, were observed to be increasing during the period of study. The analysis also confirmed that the number of factories operating under the Factories Act, 1948 have decreased over the period of analysis both at national and state level. Joseph (2009) researched and found out the India s labor force ranges from large numbers of illiterate workers to a sizeable pool of highly educated and skilled professionals. Labor welfare activities in India 46

3 Journal of Public Policy and Governance originated in They underwent notable changes during the ensuing years. Government, employers and trade unions have done a lot to promote the betterment of workers conditions. 3. Research Methodology Objectives: To study the Industrial Relations in Manufacturing Sector. To study the impact of provisions of Factories Act on Industrial Relations in Manufacturing Sector. Research design: The research design used in this study is descriptive research. Two sources of data have been used for conducting the study. Survey method was used to collect the primary data. Secondary Data: Secondary data was collected through journals, internet, research papers etc. Five point Linker Scale was used to develop the questionnaire. It consists of 5 response choices i.e. strongly Agree- 1, Agree - 2, Neutral-3, Disagree - 4 and Strongly Disagree - 5. Sampling method: The sampling method used in the survey was Convenience Sampling method. Sample size: The sample size used in this survey was 100. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed among labors out of which 100 responses came back. 4. Data Analysis and Interpretations Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics of Health Provisions N Mean Std. Deviation 1. Cleanliness Disposal of waste and effluents Ventilation and temperature Dust and fume Drinking Water Total of Health Provisions Table 1: Descriptive statistics of Health Provisions Interpretations: Majority of respondents are satisfied with the situation prevailing in their organization with reference to heath provisions of Factories Act. This is proven with a mean of 1.64 and deviation of 0.5 from the mean. Lower the score predicts better situation. 47

4 N. Kumari & R. Ratna Descriptive statistics of Safety Provisions N Mean Std. Deviation 6. Work on or near machinery Employment of young persons on dangerous machines Hoist and lifts Excessive weights Precautions in case of fire Total of Safety Provisions Table 2: Descriptive statistics of Safety Provisions Interpretations: Majority of respondents agree with the fact that Safety provisions are practiced in the organization as per the Factories Act. It is proven statistically by mean of 1.79 and deviation of 0.73 from the mean. Safety measures are appropriate in the organization up to a great extent. Descriptive statistics of Welfare Provisions N Mean Std. Deviation 11. Washing facilities Facilities for sitting Shelters, lunch rooms and rest rooms Weekly hours Daily Hours Total of Welfare Provisions Table 3: Descriptive statistics of Welfare Provisions Interpretations: Welfare facilities such as washing, sitting, shelters, rest rooms and lunch rooms are in adequate in the organization and are kept in a good condition. Majority of respondents agree with the application of Welfare measures taken by the company and they believe that they are in sink with the Factories Act. It is proven statistically with a mean of 1.74 along with a moderate deviation of 0.6. Regression Analysis Health provisions on Industrial Relations Model R R Square Adjusted R Square 1.607(a) Table 4: Model summary for total health provisions 48

5 Journal of Public Policy and Governance Interpretations: Health provisions have a positive significance along with an impact of 37% on the Industrial Relations. Safety provisions on Industrial Relations Model R R Square Adjusted R Square 1.573(a) Table 5: Model summary for total safety provisions Interpretations: Safety provisions have a positive significance along with an impact of 33% on the Manufacturing sector. Welfare provisions on Industrial Relations Model R R Square Adjusted R Square 1.507(a) Table 6: Model summary for total welfare provisions Interpretations: Welfare provisions have a positive significance along with an impact if 25% on the Manufacturing sector. The results of the regression analysis show that health provisions have maximum impact on the industrial relations of the manufacturing sector followed by safety provisions and welfare provisions. 5. Conclusions From the interpretations of the sample data it can be concluded that the Health, Safety and Welfare provisions in the Manufacturing sector is good. The Mean and SD values indicate that the various parameters, used to measure provisions of Factories Act are perceived in a positive way by the employees of the organization. This set-up is based upon the conventions of the law prevailing in the manufacturing sector. The study highlights that provisions of the Factories Act are an important indicator of how efficient the companies are towards contributing to the growth of the manufacturing sector and abiding by the law. Therefore organizations should emphasize on creating and maintaining a lawful environment by following the provisions of the various acts formed by the Indian Government. Also it is observed & evaluated through a proper analysis of the questionnaire that the companies are abiding by the provisions of the Factories act. References Akintayo, D. I. (2010). A Conceptual Study of Privatization of Public Enterprises and Industrial Relations Practice in a Mixed Recessional Economy. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 9, 12. Joseph, B. (2009). Labour Welfare in India. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 24, Kaufman, B. E. (2010). The Theoretical Foundation of Industrial Relations and its Implications for Labor Economics and Human Resource Management. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 64, 1. Lansbury, R. D. & Wailes, N. (2010). Employment Relations & Rights in the Global Automotive Industry. The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 45, 4. Mark, C. R. & McKenna, R. (2009). Seeding the Clouds for Industrial Relations Climate Change in Emerging Economies. Thunderbird International Business Review, 51, 2, March/April. 49

6 N. Kumari & R. Ratna Yadav, I. S. (2007). Industrial Structure and Performance in Andhra Pradesh vis-à-vis India. The Icfai Journal 8 of Industrial Economics, IV, 4. 50