Fundamentals_of_Ir

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page no. 1. Objective of the project 04 2. Methodology Adopted 04 3. Introduction about the company 05 4. Mecon’s Executives Association 06-10 4.1 Introduction 06 4.2 Membership 06 4.3 Structure 07 4.4 Process of selection of governing bodies 08 4.5 Affiliations 08 4.6 Issues pertaining to Association and Management 09-10 5. Mecon’s Employee Union 11-16 5.1 Structure of governing bodies 11 5.2 Process of election of governing bodies 12 5.3 Affiliations 12 5.4 Cases Associated 13-16 6. Other concerns for management 16-17 7. Learning experience & conclusions 17-24 10. References 25 11. Appendices 26-28 1.0 Objective The objective of the project is to understand the Industrial and Labour Relations scenario in a particular organization. The organization we studied was- MECON India Ltd. Ranchi. We by means of our study have tried to co-relate our learning in the classroom to those in the organization. We, by means of our interaction with the employees and the management of the company have tried to analyze the dynamics of the labour relations in the company and the various ways in which the trade union bargains with the management and vice versa. We were fortunate enough to have a very active executives association in the company with which we could directly relate the white collar unionism concept of Industrial Relations. The executives association being the dominant partner with more than 90% employees as its members makes the situation very interesting. Though there haven’t been many strikes or lock-outs in the company owing to a number of reasons like a prudent management and sensible work force, we managed to find interesting instances in due course of our research. Things like the smooth functioning of democracy, or even the actual presence of it were very distinctly observable. The company being in the political capital of the state cannot stay from political interference and due to that things became extremely interesting in some of the cases. The burning question of political interference in the IR scenario still remained unanswered because of its pros and cons. Like all other major organizations MECON too has had a problem with contract labour. We have tried to analyze the before mentioned issues and a lot of others by means of our report. 2.0 Methodology We have relied on a number of sources for the analysis of the data which we collected. We have primarily relied upon the conversations which we had in the company. Prominent among them were:-   Mecon Employees Union 1. President 2. Vice President 3. Gen secretary 4. Treasurer 5. Members Mecon Executives Association 1. President 2. Vice President 3. A couple of Workers Human Resource Department 1. IR manager 2. H.R. Manager We talked to them at length about the various issues pertaining to the company, which had arisen over the years. The employees at first were skeptical before divulging information but as we kept on calling they became more and more cooperative. We also got access to the constitution of both the employees’ executive association and the employees union. Also the employees were kind enough to show us a couple of bipartite agreements and some of the tripartite ones. Our basis for analysis was Prof. Pranabesh Ray’s teachings in the class and the course handout of the subject ‘Fundamentals of Industrial Relations’. 3.0 Introduction about the company 3.1 MECON GLIMPSES ● MECON LIMITED is a public sector under taking under the Ministry of Steel, Government of India. ● It was established in 1959 under the aegis of Central Engineering & Design Bureau (CEDB), is India’s frontline engineering, consultancy and contracting organization, offering full range of services required for setting up of Project from concept to commissioning including turnkey execution. ● It is a multi- disciplinary firm with 1285 experienced & dedicated engineers, scientists and technologists, having a network of offices spread all over the country, experienced in handling consultancy assignments and EPC Projects. ● MECON has played a significant role in the development and expansion of Indian Industries. MECON is an ISO: 9001:2000 company and is registered with international financial institutions like WB, ADB, AFDB and has technological tie-ups with world leaders. Key areas of activities: Metals, Power, Oil and Gas, Infrastructure It has Engineering offices located in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Agra, Bhilai, Bhubneshwar, Chennai, Durgapur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and many more. 4.0 MECON EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION (Motto: Long Live MECON, Long Live MECON executives, Long Live MECON Executive Association) 4.1 Introduction Over 400 Executives of Mecon on 15th June 1973, decided to form an association after a lot of deliberations. They took necessary steps for registration of the body, draft the constitution and carry forward day to day activities to fulfill the common welfare interests. The name of the association was kept as MECON Executives Association. The registered office as well as the headquarters of the association is at Ranchi. The activities of the association extend to any part of the country where MECON has an interest. Local Branches of the Association are established at such centers. MEA is registered body with registration no. 16 of 1974-75. MEA under the society’s registration act no.XXI of 1860 and is affiliated to Steel Executives Federation of India. The association is recognized by MECON management. 4.2 Membership Any executive of MECON, who desires to become the member of the association, is required to apply in the form prescribed for the purpose along with an admission fee of Rs. 20 and Rs. 60 towards insurance premium for the year in which admission is sought. In case of executive from branch office executive committee considers grant of membership on the basis of recommendation from branch committee. After becoming a member a monthly subscription of Rs. 30 per month is deducted from the salary of the member. The funds are utilized for:   1. Group insurance fee covering all the members 2. Welfare fund 3. Subscription towards SEFI membership 4. Association’s in house communication/news items 5. Legal expenses if any with prior approval of the committee 6. Day to day expenditures of the association 4.3 STRUCTURE The present strength of MECON executive association is 1755. The office bearers/management of the association comprises of the following bodies/committees: 4.3.1 General body It comprises of all the members on roll including members from branch /site/ regional offices 4.3.2 Branch General Body It comprises of all the members on the roll in the respective branch/site/regional office 4.3.3 Council It consists of elected representatives from each section of the company. In general there is 1 member for every 20 members 4.3.4 General Council The general council consists of council members of head office, executive committee and branch secretary along with his one nominee 4.3.5 Central committee It consists of the executives committee at the head office and branch secretary from each branch committee   4.3.6 Executive committee It consists of a maximum of 15 members elected by the employees of the organization. The committee comprises of a President, two Vice Presidents, a general secretary, four joint secretaries, a treasurer and six members. 4.3.7 Branch committee If the number of employees at a site is more than 20 and the office is permanent a branch committee can be formed under the guidance of the nearest branch. 4.4 Process of selection of the governing bodies: The body is elected through method of voting once in every 2 years. Last election took place in July 2010. The process of campaigning starts 2 months before the date of voting and is generally done in groups. No posters or banners are allowed. Generally, groups of people go and talk to people especially in the canteen or in the MECON colony and persuade them to vote for them. The entire process is managed by the association alone without any intervention from the management or any political party. A returning officer is appointed for this purpose. 4.5 Affiliations: • Political Parties There is a general sense of insecurity of unwanted interference by the political parties in the functioning of the association hence; MEA is not inclined towards to any political party. They have been approached earlier by a few parties, but they stood by their decision to stay out of political affiliation. But sometimes they do use political contacts to pursue their demands and use their influences to pressurize management. Their contacts were used during negotiations for pay revision in line with SAIL. • Federations MEA is affiliated to Structural Engineering Forum of India (SEFI). As MEA is a very small entity in SEFI, it is not of much help but SEFI has good influence on steel ministry. MEA pays an amount of Rs.30, 000/- per annum towards its membership. • Relationship with MECON Employees Union Most of the times there is no interaction between the association and the union. They come together in rare cases; One being that of the welfare activities. The canteen issues are jointly taken up by the MEU and the MEA. 4.6: ISSUES PERTAINING TO ASSOCIATION AND MANAGEMENT 4.6.1 Case of Recruitment The management had a policy of not recruiting engineers from campuses as MECON was incurring losses at that time. To meet the requirements, management started to employ contract employees and then regularizing them. Initially the policy was such that the management used to regularize them after 2 years of service. The problem with this was that the process was not transparent and there was nor any fixed process of how to select employees for regularization. The personal preferences of the management could result in wrong candidates getting selected. The association was against regularizing the employees in this way. They bargained with the management to make these employees permanent only after 5 years of service. The association is currently negotiating to make the employees permanent after a 2 year service only if they have scored minimum 60% marks in all the semesters of their studies and have excellent on their job performance evaluation. They intend to bring transparency and make the system much more effective. One thing which struck all of us was that the association was not only working to further the interests of its employees but also kept the interest of the company in view. The method by which the employees were being regularized, would have affected the company’s performance in the long run. 4.6.2 Pay revision The association worked for MECON’s repositioning in the ‘A+’ bracket, where SAIL is positioned. They wanted their pay to be at par with that of the SAIL employees as since their inception they had their pay similar to them. The Union steel ministry later agreed to revise the salary of Mecon executives so that it is on a par with that of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).This was made possible after after a delegation of Mecon Executive Association led by its president Vivek Kapila met Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh and submitted a petition for implementation of wage revision for PSU executives. This was one of the greatest achievements of the association. 4.6.3 Attempted merger with SAIL MECON was working towards its merger with SAIL. The rationale given was that as most of the work of MECON came from SAIL and the two companies shared unparalleled synergies. Most of the executives were in the favour of the merger. MEA played an active part in the whole process.There was regular communication between the steel ministry and the association. Several approaches were made through the local MP and through CITU as well. Though the merger was not approved by the steel ministry still the efforts put in by the executive association are worth mentioning. 4.6.4 Other welfare initiatives taken by the association 1. Payment of Bumper annual incentive '08-09' 2. Release of adhoc adjustable advance '08' 3. Payment of house perks tax by MECON for '08-09' in line with SAIL 4. Excellent promotion of executives in '2009' 5. Enhancement of EL encashment limit from 240 to 300 days 6. Enhancement of EICS scheme 7. Improved Welfare & canteen facilities for executive 8. Mobile connections to all executives up to 'E-I' 9. Up-gradation of Guest house 10. Improved medical facilities for parents having pension less than Rs. 6000/month 11. Leave encashment W.E.F revised wage scale-07 12. Enhancement of gratuity to Rs. 10.0 lacs 13. Office modernization in engineering & site offices 14. Restoration of welfare activities   5.0 MECON’s EMPLOYEE UNION "Trade Union" means combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive condition on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more Trade Unions. Basic details: • Consists of the ordinary, associate, honorary and displaced members of MECON, Ranchi and also employees of the branch offices in Bangalore and Gurgaon. Types of members- 1. Ordinary members – Regular employees of MECON, Ranchi and other branch offices 2. Associate members – Persons working in MECON on contractual basis 3. Honorary members – People who are considered to be a value addition to the union but are not eligible to become the ordinary members • Total Strength : 218 • Although the membership is optional, all the non-executive employees are members of this union. Thus, giving it a Union Shop feature. Membership Fee: Earlier it was Rs 2/month but now it has been changed to Rs 20 collected each time elections are held. Method – Earlier check off method was used to deduct Rs 2 each month i.e. Rs 2 was deducted directly from the wages by the management and added to the union fund. Now, considering the small number of members, Rs 20 is directly charged from each member each time election is held. 5.1 Structure of governing bodies: It consists of 2 committees: 1) Executive committee: The members have to be specific to the main branch only. It consists of 20 office bearers which includes a President, Vice-President, General Secretary, Treasurer and 11 executive members i.e. Total Office Bearers: 20 2) Central Committee: It consists of members of the executive committee of the main office along with the office bearers of the branch offices. 5.2 Process of selection of the governing bodies: The body is elected through method of voting once in every 2 years. Last election took place in August 2009. The process starts 2 months before the date of voting. Campaigning is generally done in groups. No posters or banners are allowed for it. Generally, groups of people go and talk to people especially in the mess are or the MECON colony and persuade them to vote for them. The entire process is managed by the union alone without any intervention from the management or any political party. The membership of the union is also renewed at the same time with each member paying Rs20 for it. Each member is given a box of sweets after he votes (incentivizing voting). Voting is carried out in the form of Secret Ballot for a total of 20 office bearers. 5.3 Usage of the union fund: • The union fund is mostly used for the election process and for distributing sweets to the members. The fee is too low and thus, union lacks enough funds for any extra activities. • In the times of need, members collect extra money to help some other union members. 5.4 Employee Welfare: For employees, the union also arranges for accidental insurance at Rs.28 per month. The union has always gone out of its way to help the families of employees who pass away before retirement. In a particular case of Mr.Sushil, who died while on duty, the union arranged for a sum of Rs. 4.5 lacs by initiating a donation drive within the organization. 5.5 Affiliations: • Political Parties There is a general sense of insecurity of unwanted interference by the political parties in the functioning of the union hence; MEU is not affiliated to any political party. They have been approached earlier by a few parties, but they stood by their decision to stay out of political affiliation. • Federations MEU shares good relations with CITU President Mr. M K Pandhey who is also an MP. They get indirect help from CITU but cannot afford direct membership as the fee is not affordable by them. They also go to Delhi in rare cases to meet the CITU President and get advice from him. • Relationship with MECON Executive Association Most of the times there is no interaction between the association and the union. MEU deals with the management directly. They come together in rare cases; One being that of the welfare activities. The mess issues are jointly taken up by the MEU and the MEA. 5.6 Related Cases: 1) This is the case where MEU and MEA came together for a common cause. During the chairmanship of Mr. D Rath, both the groups raised separate demands for bonus for Durga Pooja. On suggestion of the Chairman, both groups cooperated with each other and raised a common demand. They decided on the terms of negotiation and in the end, both benefitted from this cooperation. 2) In 2009 when the demand for increased wages was approved based on the 6th pay commission, the benefits received by the MEA were much higher when compared to the MEU. Executive officers received perks worth 47% whereas union members did not receive any perks. After this the relationship between the 2 groups got strained and there has been no work that they have taken up together since then. • Contract Labour Contract labourers are not a part of the union. 5.7 Policy Decisions – Most of the decisions are based on bipartite agreement involving union along with the management and later on the labour commissioner is involved. The union shares good relations with the labour department of the government. They are overall happy with the system. 5.8 Branch Offices Each branch office has its own governing body for the union. They have a close connection with the main MEU in Ranchi. Most problems are resolved locally, but in case of some bigger issues, MEU, Ranchi is requested for help. The union here then takes the responsibility and sends help to the respective branch office. 5.9 The relationship with the management The general feeling amongst the union for the management is positive. They uphold immense respect for the management and consider the relationship between management and union as one of guardian-ward. 5.10 A case where the union turned against the management This is a case when in 2003; the company was going through a very bad phase. The employees had not been paid salaries for 4 months. The then Chairman was blamed for the situation. The Trade union finally succumbed to the pressure of livelihood, loyalty to the company had always been there, but to survive without salaries for the non-executive members was impossible. One day the union members “GHERAO-ed”, i.e. they surrounded the board of directors in the conference room with demands of immediate action and payment of dues. The union members got utensils, trumpets and other instruments to protest. It was past midnight but the management did not buckle under the pressure. None of them moved from their seats. At 3.30 in the morning, the union members who had staged this dharna, without food, water, etc. decided to quit .They let the management leave. The management did however promise to look into the matter. However this was possibly the only way the management could have reacted, according to the trade union leaders. The company didn’t have any money and there was a lot of pressure from outside to disinvest/ close down. However this was a time when the union and the management and the executive association came together to revive the company. All realized that it was in the common interest of all that the company made profits. Soon the situation changed, new disciplinary rules were chartered and other changes were also made. This case clearly showed the relationship shared between the management and the union that despite the hard times, union decided to stay by the company’s side and the company was revived. 5.11 What is the main reason/rationale for conflicts and disagreements' The union has been working towards regularization of contract employees. Their target is to reduce this list by almost 50%. Until 1992, a family member of the deceased employee or any dislocated person i.e. a person whose lands were taken by MECON for various purpose such as for building MECON Colony and departments were given permanent employment. But after 1992, MECON started engaging them as contract employees. Till 1995, the management did not agree to regularize the contract employees. As a result, the list of contract employees (family members of deceased people and dislocated persons) became really long. After much persistence by the union, the management decided to regulate certain employees who had a work experience of greater than 15 years. Upon further pursuance and negotiations by the union to regularize these employees the following employees were regularized- 2009: 6 in which 2 were contract employees, 2 were displaced employees (employees whose land was taken by the company) and 2 were relatives of the deceased employees. 2010: Major success achieved with 18 employees absorbed by the company. As of now, the primary goal of the union is to reduce the list by 50% and once this goal is achieved, the secondary goal is to further negotiate the ‘15 years work experience’ limit . 5.12 Attempt to form another union In ***, one of the employees of the MECON hospital created another union called the MECON Karmachari Sangh. Certain officials of the MEU took this as a threat to their existence and used unlawful means to stop the formation. The Karmachari Sangh never saw the light of the day. Since then there have been no further attempts. The IR situation is stable in MECON. There have been no strikes or attempts of strikes in last 3 decades. The last strike took place in 1977. The management is cooperative and understanding too. The union considers the company as their family and deal with issues mostly on negotiation basis through discussions. The union office is within the premises of the MECON office in Ranchi and the space is provided to them by the management. 6.0 OTHER CASES: 6.0.1 Issue of lightning strike by contract workers One of the recent problems faced by the management was due to the contract labourers. There was a lightning strike by the labourers involved in the up keeping job. The management was given no notice about the strike and the matters became more serious as the labourers had political support even to the level of ex-chief minister. The reason for the strike was that the contractor had not contributed to the PF of the workers. The workers instead of going to the contractor wanted the Mecon management to contribute to the PF. According to the IR manager, the ulterior motive was to gain permanent employment and succumbing to the workers’ demands might have proved dangerous to them in the long run. The IR policy at Mecon was to always keep the contractor “in front”. To find the solution to the above problem the management instead of paying the PF themselves, held several meetings with the contractor. Finally the solution was reached, with the contractor paying his dues. Hence in the end it was a “win-win” situation for both the labourers and the management. From the discussions we had with the IR manager we observed that the philosophy of the management to keep the contractor in the front was more of a preventive measure. Having faced some problems earlier when they dealt directly with the contract labourers, they did not want to let the matters reach a level where dealing became difficult. The labourers could have collected the receipts of the payments done by the management in lieu of the contractor and later used it to demand regularization. To prevent matters from reaching this stage the management tried it’s best to solve the matters by interacting with the contractor and the labourers to solve their grievances. From what we could gather from our interaction the first step they took if any such situation arose was to suggest the labourers to go to the contractor directly and tell their grievance to him and if it does not work then intervene to act as a link between the two. 6.0.2 Case for regularization Mr. ***, a contract workman working as a liftman and DG operator in Mecon filed a case for regularization. The situation started when the contractor who employed the liftman left the scene without paying the wages of the workman. The workman approached the management and the management started paying him wages on a daily basis. On the other hand the workman collected all the receipts and by taking the help of an outside union, asked the management to regularize him. The matter reached the conciliation officer. The process failed. Later the case was referred to the labour court. The labour court gave the decision in the favour of Mr. ***. After that Mecon citing certain references of past judgements has appealed in the high court and the case is still on. 7.0 LEARNING EXPERIENCE & CONCLUSIONS 7.1 Trade union & Democracy We, in due course of our project came across numerous instances where we could see Democracy in play. Also we found numerous situations where we could actually test the strength of democracy. The various parameters on which the democratic structure can be evaluated are:- 1. The legal School: - The election procedure and other electoral procedures reflect the efficiency of democracy in a big way. According to our study, the elections of both the Association and Union are carried out with extreme care and no instances of rigging have ever been reported. A separate election returning officer and 2 assistant returning officers are appointed before every election to oversee and coordinate the whole process. Also like mentioned in the constitution, General Body Meetings are held twice a year, with almost 100% attendance. Regular meetings of the union and the association are also held. The most striking part was the strict adherence to the constitution by both the union and the association. We recall a particular incident when one of our group members commented that the constitution was actually only literature and that matters at the ground level were entirely different. In response to this the official got extremely angry and said that here the constitution is sacrosanct. One more important point to be noted was the fact that the union and employee executive association have witnessed the election of new members after every election. More than 70% members change after every election and that there is little opposition to newer members contesting and winning the election. Campaigning is carried out in groups, i.e. there are various parties standing for the election which validates our point further. 2. The Behavioural School: - The presence of a constructive opposition is integral to the functioning of a democracy. However, post elections it was witnessed that the opposition isn’t very active and except for an occasional quarrel, there is hardly any constructive work put in by the people who lost in the elections. Since there are elections every two years it isn’t a lot of time either. 3. The Responsiveness School: - The leaders we met looked extremely experienced and capable of standing up for things they deemed correct. The association executive also gave us the idea that they were receptive to any suggestions made by the employees and even in the past there had been numerous instances of employees directly walking up to them and discussing issues. However, in the Union which is a closely knit group of 200 odd members, the issues are common to most of them; hence the union leadership is very close to them. However the occurrence of one stray incident which made us question the democracy. This was a time when a rival trade union was not allowed to exist because according to some people it threatened the unity of the existing trade union. It was perceived that it would hamper the bargaining power of the existing union which in itself only had very few members. Some elements of the union went to the labour offices and using unfair means stole all the papers of the union and didn’t let it form. This attempt by some union members is an open blot on the democratic structure of the union. However, the reaction and the vocal support of the workers to this issue and the very fact that, things have run very smoothly after this makes us rethink our initial stance. Though it seems that single union is better in this case as the number of members is very less but then the way to attain the objective is questionable. 7.2 IR and the state As we know that industrial relations are based on three pillars – the management, the union and the state. From our discussions with the executive association, the employees union and the IR department the importance of the relationship between the three was enforced. Though in most of the cases the IR department and the union try to come to a solution through bipartite means, still there is a visible effort put in by the union to be on good terms with the state and the officials of the labour department. The union organizes informal meetings with the officials during festivals. During our talks with the union we were also told that the recent agreement reached on the pay revision has been sent to the labour commissioner’s office for his signature. They further told us that even though the negotiations were bipartite the state is kept in the loop most of the times. The MECON Executive Association also believes in the same philosophy of maintaining good relationship with the state. They also organize guest sessions, informal dinners and get-together for the officials of the labour department. We also observed that in spite of having good relationship with the union, association and management, labour department works towards providing benefits, resolving disputes, and fostering goodwill for the employees. The state in this case acts as a watchdog, overseeing all the agreements. So, despite the matters being resolved in a bipartite manner the presence of the state helps the scenario in more than one way. It ensures that neither party is able to exploit the needs of the other. 7.3 Trade Union and Politics:- From our learning so far, we have seen that linkage of political parties with the trade union is a common phenomenon and it exists at various levels. At MECON, the management and the workers both believe in no affiliation with any of the political parties. Reason: • unwanted intervention by the parties in the functioning of the company • The IR situation overall in MECON is peaceful and hence, there has not been a strong need for the affiliation so far • Management wanted to avoid obligations and pressures from the parties in case of recruitment • MEU feels that most political parties have selfish interests and most of the times the union is left stranded after affiliation Hence, according to Munson’s typology, both, the Mecon Executive Association and Mecon Employee Union are politically neutral i.e. they have no accepted political ideology. They have a democratic structure and are hence, member centric and also dependent on management for most of their needs. However, they do follow the activities of the CITU affiliated union at SAIL. Although, they claim to have no political linkages, certain instances have been observed by us that make us believe that the current situation in India makes it very difficult to keep politics and union completely separate. They were: • In one of the instances, the Mecon Executive Association requested Mr.Kansay(a political party leader) to arrange for a meeting of the association members with Steel Ministry of India. The association also helped them arrange a speech/meet with the ministry when they came to Ranchi. • They used their political parties to exert pressure on the management regarding their demands in the case of pay revision • MEU maintains good relations with the CITU President There have also been other instances, e.g. - the case of downfall in 2003 where unions were approached by political parties but they stood firm by their decision and did not succumb under the pressure despite being denied 4 months salaries. Based on our analysis, we concluded that due to the less strength of the members in the union at Mecon and the cordial relationship between the union and the management, they could retain their basic ideology of no participation in any political activity. 7.4 Collective Bargaining Collective bargaining is considered to be the one of the most important processes for successful working of an organization, wherein the workers along with the management, work in complete harmony. ILO defines Collective Bargaining as: Negotiations about working conditions and terms of employment between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers' organizations, on the one hand, and one or more representative workers' organizations on the other, with a view to reaching agreement. In our organization we came to know that all the negotiations were done by the 2 parties i.e. the union and the management, with a view to reaching agreement. All the cases which we have discussed in our report show that all the agreements were come upon in the form of bipartite agreements. We also learnt about the various directions from which collective bargaining can be looked upon from. They are: 1. Economic There were certain instances where the union had some wage related issues such as the one they wanted their pay to be at par with that of the SAIL employees. It was only after the persistence and the negotiating power of the union that they had managed to convince the management to take the matter further up with the government. 2. Psychological Sometimes the process also acts as a ritual of negotiation provide cathartic effect on pent up tensions in the minds of the workers. A case which aptly depicted this was when employees were denied salaries for 4 months. One day the Union members “GHERAO-ed”, i.e. they surrounded the board of directors in the conference room. This incident showed the level of frustration of the workers, which came out in the form of a sort-of violent demonstration. 3. Political The political angle of the process of collective bargaining can be depicted in the incident in where the workers power bloc challenged the power bloc of management. The main issue of conflict between the workers and the management was related to the regularization of the contract employees, who got their jobs due to the death of a certain employee or the acquisition of their land by the company. Till 1995, the management did not agree to regularize them. Only after many discussions and talks, the management finally decided to regularise certain employees. Employees regularised- 2009: 6 in which 2 were contract employees, 2 were displaced employees (employees whose land was taken by the company) and 2 were relatives of the deceased employees. 2010: major success achieved with 18 employees absorbed by the company. This instance along with the case mentioned above, where the management was ‘GHERAO-ed’, are classic examples of how two power blocs can come at loggerheads. Though there have been a few incidents of conflicts between the workers and the management, overall we can say that the IR situation in MECON is stable. There have been no strikes in last 3 decades. The last strike took place in 1977. Generally issues are sorted out by the process of bipartite agreement. 7.5 Managerial Unionism The MECON Executive Association is an example of white collar unionism. While studying in class we had discussed whether these are unions or associations and whether there is a difference between the two. Though the association is registered under the Society Registrations Act it performs most of the activities like a union. It is also observed that they call themselves associations just because there is a stigma attached to the word “union” and the members have a perception of superior social and occupational status. This was exactly what we experienced. One of the incidents which emphasized this was the strong reaction of an association member when we called it a union by mistake. Also while talking to a member of the committee we felt that they considered themselves superior to the union and preferred working alone. Any association with the labour union was not desirable. Also the association had the view that the union was just interested in extracting money. This showed that the association did not have a very good opinion about the union. However it must be noted that the association and the union worked together on welfare issues like managing the canteen. Various initiatives are taken for the welfare of the members and issues like wage negotiation etc. were carried out. 7.6 Employers Association During our conversation with the officials of the executive association, we were told that MECON is a member of the Standing Conference of Public enterprise (SCOPE) and The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). We could co-relate that MECON management had joined such chambers/councils because of following reasons: 1. To promote collective bargaining at different levels. 2. To bring a unified employers viewpoint on the issues of industrial relations to the government in a concerted manner. 3. To make them globally competitive. Empowering its members with a platform to gain access to new technologies, insights into new business models available globally etc. 4. International representation. We also observed that the employers of MECON are able to pay a hefty amount of Rs. 2, 00,000/- annually towards membership fees of these councils whereas MEU was struggling for funds. Through our discussions, we observed that MEU though wanted to become a member of CITU but was unable to because of shortage of funds. 7.7 Workers Participation in Management (union) There is a consensus among the organization that there should be a say of the workers in the management process. However there is no particular initiative taken by the management to ensure the participation of its non-executive members in the decision making process. According to the union, though it tries to put across its suggestions to the management there is no particular need for a Works Committee in the organization. A similar comment was made by the administration stating that it too believes in involving workers but then there is no need for a particular platform there. There is no concept of a worker Director either. This state of affairs could be attributed to a number of reasons. 1. The number of workers is very less (250 odd out of 2000). 2. The management has always been very friendly and considerate. 3. The channels of communication in the organisation are very strong. It is only during the time of celebrations like the Independence Day, Republic Day etc. and in charitable activities that the union, the employees association and the management come together to organize events, collect money etc. In case of the association a lot of members of it are at the General Manager and Deputy Manager Level and actually have a say in the decision making process . So any particular initiative is not required on their part.