Working Conditions in Industries!

Hi Guys,

Life is just mysterious. It is difficult to find out reasons for some questions. I and few of my friends are going to various industries at various places. We have been wondering a lot of things in our mind.

One of my project mates underwent In-plant training in one of the well known public sector industry last year and now we are doing our project in a leading private sector industry that has won lot of awards for quality and is well known for concepts such as employee involvement and empowerment.

First thing my friend said was workers were very liberal there. They had association and unions and they used to stop the work even for the tiniest of problems. If 8 hours was the shift time, they used to come to work late and then sit and play with cards or sleep and enjoy the time. The work carried out is less. Here, relaxation is only when there is some gap between change of work or after feeding a job in the machine. If the shift time is 8 hours, they stand for 7 hours, excluding the lunch time. We guys were not even able to stand for 3-4 hours and we find a place to sit (there will be no place to sit inside the modules).

When we were observing a process for our project, we found out a friendly operator and we were speaking with him. He has finished his ITI and he said that he was working there for 2 years and he is not yet a permanent employee (he said that even some workers with 20 years experience are not yet made permanent). We were asking about the work times and he said it is shift based and they have just four days leave per month (only Sundays or they come to industry on Sunday and take comp off on some other day).  He said he receives something around 4.8k per month. We were asking about the chances of him joining another industry and he said the condition is same everywhere. The point to be observed here is that the industry racks up hundreds of crores of profit.

Another friend of mine is doing his project in an industry at Chennai and he says the working conditions there are much worse. They have recruited labors from Bihar and the surrounding states. This is because they don’t know the language, so they work without talking. They work like anything for 10-12 hours for just 3k per month. He says that at least our people used to complain about the works, but those people work like robots. They finish a job, their hand automatically moves to the next part.

He says that there is not even a place to sit in the industry. Their main objective seems to be production. The worst part is that there is no water nearby to drink. Those labors work without drinking water. This industry too sells the product at double the manufacturing cost and all goes into the owner’s pocket. My friend was saying that he was going to suggest the manager to adopt better working conditions on the final day of his project.

The first day I went there, I was struggling to walk back to home. Now, my legs are adopted, though the pain is still there. If you are someone who complains for minor problems and hate to go to college or office on Saturday, know that there are people receiving lower salary and having worse working conditions.

Happy Reading!!!