Politics The pen-pushers of the Indian ruling classes are busy drumming up an illusory consensus on the process of economic liberalisation. Two Bourgeois Combinations & Alternative Whenever the Congress is seen supporting the proposals of the BJP, it takes the plea that this is a commitment it had made in its manifesto. Labour Relations Technological changes are not something new that are happening only now.

Technological changes are not something new that are happening only now. If we study the history of industrial development in both pre-independence and post-independence periods we find that technological changes have been taking place all the time, may be in some sectors at a fast pace and in others in a relatively slower one. One feature has remained conspicuously common and pervading, that is, we have almost always imported new technologies. India, as a country, with the largest number of technologists, as often claimed, does not have a glorious record in developing its own technology in any sphere of engineering or other branches of scientific application. Imported, transplanted new technologies have invited a host of problems of which labour relations problems are only a nominal fraction and human resource mananagement, though a significant one, cannot be judged to be an overbearing problem in the total perspective. So, before any analysis is made in the matter related to these two areas, an overview is necessary on how new technologies have been introduced in India in last fifty years.

LACK OF POLICY BY THE GOVT OR THE INDUSTRY

There was no determined bid to upgrade the technological base of our industry or services in post-independence period, when it was expected so because a lot of planning process was set to work. New technologies were imported from advanced industrialised countries in isolated form and such decisions were taken by managers at enterprise level only and in hind-sight one can very well observe that many of those choices were flawed either being too outdated to be economic or too advanced to be maintained in a backward non-supportive infrastructure. Decisions made by govt. departments for public sector enterprises also suffered from such infirmities.

New technologies have been imported, at the industry level, keeping in mind that those would be operated, generally, in isolation. Care had been taken so that those somehow remained operational in Indian conditions and the supply routes for vital inputs like spare parts, operational or maintenance skill or knowledge, even in some cases, raw materials remained linked to the countries of origin. People have been sent abroad to acquire the skill to work with the new technologies or experts have come here to train our workers and engineers. For most of the cases we have failed to develop an industrial base to provide logistical support to the imported technologies and the overseas route had to be kept open, almost permanently. Meanwhile more advanced technologies arrived in the international market and the same story went on repeating, again and again, ad infinitum.

The Government not only defaulted in working out a well-knit technology policy but also failed to address the problems associated with the new technoloties, wherever or however introduced.

Occasionally we have heard that the Government contemplated importing only the appropriate technology. Nobody defined them nor was there any clarification about what made one appropriate or not. Transfer of technology or induction of new technology were never considered to be serious matters in industrial management by our policy makers. Therefore a legal or policy frame-work is totally absent even to-day. In these institutional frame-work labour relations and human resource management/development matters would have found due importance and a set of guidelines should have been there for us to follow or try. But there is nothing like that. As a result we cannot evaluate here how our existing policies have worked or failed and what corrective steps are to be taken to overcome the shortcomings.

NEED FOR AN AUDIT

As we have already said, that labour relations and human resource management are important matters to reckon with while new technologies get inducted, but not the most important aspects of it. Absorption of new technology is an area which should come under a close scrutiny. Are we prepared to make a serious study about how the new technologies remained operational after, say, 5 years of introduction ? I am afread our country will prove to be a grave-yard of new technologies if such an audit is carried out. There may be exceptions but in most cases it would be found that sophisticated systems have either wholly or partially been by-passed or improvised to suit our conditions. The reasons may be many, like lack of spare parts, cost of spare parts, maintenance problems, quality of raw materials and so on. It will be a staggering revelation if such an audit can quantify how much money the country has lost in importing sophisticated systems which we either failed to commission or abandoned or modified because of other problems. No study has been made to find out why such ‘dilution’ has taken place and to what extent was it avoidable. A fruitful discussion cannot be based merely on hearsay.

But such a survey is necessary if we want to formulate a technology policy either in micro or macro level. Identification of the problems or shortcomings in our entire industrial management systems, not only in human resource management but in all spheres is more important before we go into the serious matter of technology transfer. Then only we can think about remedial measures.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL DISCIPLINE

Training, Re-training, Flexibility, Multi-skilling and some such words have gone into our parlance in good measure. But are we serious about training and skill development and similar activities ? Why should we cut such a sorry figure in the matter of literacy, which is the first but most important step towards human resource development ? What percentage of our GDP goes into technical training and skill development ? If those figures are spelt out and compared with similar figures in some of the developing countries, we may not find place to hide our faces. The ITI’s which make the largest institutional frame-work for technical training and skill development are not best institutions to face up the daunting task. Those need a lot of modernisation and updating programmes. But in every tripartite meeting the Government and industry fail to agree to mop up the massive resources needed for such modernisation, jointly. Are we really serious about it ? Perhaps not.

Technological discipline up and down the line is fundamental pre-requisite for the success of a piece of new modern technology. It is the culture in which new technology can survive. But our experience is none too flattering. It is more often than not that standard operating or maintenance practices are forgotton for other pressing problems. There are exceptions but many of our engineers will agree that the ground realities do not permit them to adhere strictly to technological standards. Such compromises go on until it becomes a grave-yard, literally. This is a big subject and we have little scope here to go into more details, but such matters have bearing on the labour relations situation. This itself is a subject for serious study.

Trade Unions have long been castigated for being anti-new technology, which is wrong. Perhaps in the majority of the cases new technologies have been inducted in a green-field venture. Trade unions have no say or choice there. Similar is the condition when an individual unit is on an expansion programme to augment production capacity or to improve quality. Wherever labour saving and pollution controlling technologies are introduced, trade unions do not oppose that. Rather in some cases trade unions demanded, agitated for new technology when it became clear that existing technology had become obsolete. So trade unions reactions are a mixed one. We have always been positive when it created jobs, expanded production and cut costs.

Trade unions are concerned about massive loss of jobs, earnings and social security. All these lead not only to suffering of individuals but also stagnation of the economy. Nobody should grudge it. Out objectives are not at variance with the aspirations of the people and, at least, the stated objectives of the Government. Is there any Government in the world which does not take credit for high employment rate or does not worry for high unemployment situation ?

Loss of jobs and unemployment in Indian condition cause greater worry because those mean starvation and degradation, if not, death. In the face of such a possibility, as a workers organisation, our reactions are quite natural if we oppose any move leading to such a situation. And we will oppose it as policy makers have failed to arrest or address the situation so far.

Loss of job and unemployment together has assumed a serious problem in our society and polity. So far the government have tried to tackle the problems arising out of new technology in a pedestrian way. Retraining a highly skilled electrician to make candles and be self-employed is all but joke and it is not difficult to discover why the schemes under National Renewal Fund(NRF) failed miserably to deliver the goods.

One has to agree with the observations made in the theme paper for this seminar that Indian experience in last eight years with labour market imperfections, high unemployment along with shortages of skilled labour etc. has not been very positive. But the reference to revolution in telephone, telecom and IT industry stated to have helped creating over a million new jobs and careers for the young is only an attempt to gloss over the bleak picture that technological gap between the Indian and overseas economies has killed millions of jobs here and the epidemic has no sign of abatement.

The trade unions would like to know how the problems of displacement of workers are going to be dealt with. Who is going to take up responsibility for alternative employment, training and development of displaced workers ? It has been proved beyond doubt that reckless downsizing of enterprises aimed at improving their own bottomlines have proved disastrous for the workers and their families and also for the economy as a whole. Should these policies be not changed and be substituted by a more socially accepted and balanced one ? If these questions remained unanswered, the issues relating to technology transfer and labour relation will continue to remain contentious.

SHARING THE GAINS - THE REAL PICTURE

New technologies always result in higher productivity. And the logic forwarded to usher in new technology is that the society and workers would benefit from its higher productivity and low cost of products. In reality what happens is something else. According to Central Statistical Organisation, the current decade has shown a sharp jump in productivity of an Indian worker by 39% but the wage rise has lagged far behind at 10% only. In absence of any legal, institutional or conventional policy frame-work the gains of higher productivity has not been shared with the workers but pocketed by the employers. Technology agreement, as signed in advanced countries, is a far cry here. It is not on the agenda of the government, rather the opposite is being attempted by amending the existing laws. At the risk of inviting rebuttals in a chorus, I may state that the fact that feudal mentality is prevailing in the mindset of Indian industrialists in general. Gross indiscipline and willful subversion of statutes to deprive the workers in one way or other are pushing down the standard of living of vast majority of workers. New technology is not independent of society, it cannot survive in isolation or only through exports to the more affluent world. If the mindset does not change, it will meet the grave-yard of another kind.

PROBLEMS OF CO-EXISTENCE WITH BACKWARD TECHNOLOGY

No student of social science can overlook the effects of new technology on others in a country where primitive to ultra modern technologies are co-existing. As mentioned before, lack of technology policy has put the backward ones into great difficulty and uneven competition resulting in death of enterprises by thousands. The cumulative effect of this uneven battle is already visible in economic scenario. But the worst impact has been on employment in these industries. Trade unions demand for technology upgradation is not prompted by their own battle for survival but they demand a policy driven co-ordinated programme for general upgradation of technology, as it happened in the more advanced countries, so that the change related problems are taken care by policy makers and the government.

The massive investment required to upgrade a technology in any branch of industry cannot be generated by the outdated industries themselves. In all the advanced countries the govt. came to their help in one way or the other either for upgrading the technology or for retraining the workers. The govts have taken care of those workers left out of job in the process. Basically no worker can be against an advanced system because in almost all the cases the word ‘advanced’ means something that provide better working techniques, less hazard and labour and improved quality. Usually those have inherent safeguards, may be of varying degrees, against human failure.

Co-existence of outdated inferior technology has its negative effect on new advanced technologies as well. In the uneven competition old units push down the cost of production by depressing the wage in order to survive in the market. This makes it a vicious cycle and the result of this phenomenon is not difficult to understand.

The complex problems arising out of introduction of new technology have to be addressed in totality. Remaining blind to the human aspects of the problem will inevitability give rise to social tension and in a unstable social and industrial climate there well be no atmosphere for investment in vital sectors. And if the trade unions are undermined or pushed back to the wall, private violence will increase. Already such symptoms are visible in our country.

Technology transfer demands greater social security, not less, for the workers. Present trend in governance and industrial management is just the opposite. This trend should be reversed and increasing social security should get top priority.

A far more intimate and elaborate dialogue is necessary with the workers and trade unions by sharing all information with them and all attempts to be made to arrive at a consensus. The present trend is to weaken the trade unions by all means and get the things done. This attitude is bound to be counter-productive in the long run.

Training, retraining and all skill development cannot be left to the whims of employers or orthodox policy makers. The paradox that skilled workers don’t find jobs and enterprises do not find skilled workers has its roots in curriculum, modules and delivery system. Detailed study is needed to find out what has gone wrong and corrective measures are to be taken in right earnest.

Employers/management should honour the knowledge and expertise of the workmen by promoting quality circle and such other institutions to develop a technology culture.

Development of technology culture and strict adherence to technological discipline in the industrial management should get top priority. The workers and the unions should be involved in the process.

On the whole there should be a democratic, understanding and supportive atmosphere by taking the workers in confidence while the issues relating to new technology are sought to be sorted out keeping in mind the total impact of it on the lives of the workers in particular and the society as a whole. Some may find the process to be tedious and having pitfalls, but there is no short-cut to it. The ground realities in India to-day have enough to prove our point.