[subraiyr]

My two bits to this very interesting argument

Originally Posted by jhaji

I must thank you first, because your mail prompted me to go back to the original article in order to make at least some sense of your mail.


They are expecting to get paid better. You may think they are getting paid very WELL. I might think about someone he or she is getting paid very well. But that wont stop them from fighting for better wages. Besides, there would be proper well-accepted ways to assess what being paid very well in an industry amounts to. As an example, one of the standards could be the best that is paid in the auto industry. And if your workers are working faster and producing faster than other companies, they should get more and not less.

A very interesting observation. Lower the sale price, lower is the cost of production which translates to lower cost of raw materials - maybe both raw material and human resources. To this effect, if your final price of the vehicle is lowest, it tends to be that the labour pool is provided with lower salary. This is immaterial of any industry. Therefore benchmarking with the best in class for salary must be eyed with best in quality

Are you talking about the 2 minute absence? And regards the 'incentive', we are talking about this person who is getting 15, 000 every month after having worked as a trainee for three years at the salary of 1500, 2500 and 3500 in those years. Out of 15000, 8000 is incentive. If you consider 15000 as salary, as you seem to imply in your post with several references to high salaries, then the logic of salary should apply. But if you consider 8000 as incentive, you cannot say at the same time that they are being paid well.

Compare this with the BPO industry or the telemarketing industry or even the agency branches in insurance. In all of these cases the CTC reflects a higher payscale but the fact being that incentive does top the charts. A lot of industries are moving towards increased incentive structure tied down to performance. I am not an HR functionalist, but i would tend to agree that in this age of cost reduction this is a practice which does have merit for the end customer

A certain amount of error is an accepted fact in any kind of work. Quality control departments are needed because of this, not because workers are cheats. Responsibility of reducing the error is a combined one of workers, management, quality control, shareholders and owners (after all they can insist on risky cost-cutting). Therefore, one need not expect to be abused for an occasional error, whatever the work.

I do tend to disagree to a great extent on this. I am not a perfectionist, but i will take the blame for an error that i have caused which impacts the final output. QC is more of an audit function and it identifies defects, but does not have a responsibility to correct it. At the end of the day, if the employee has caused a defect then he stands to bear the consequences. Of course defects can be classified better such as fatal errors and non fatal errors. Fatal errors can have the higher degree of punishment while the others can be let of with warnings

I would certainly like that, the routine you describe. Fortunately, the workers are asking for much less.
The Maruti Suzuki worker in that article is trying to give us a glimpse of their life by describing the whole routine in detail. So that we can imagine, to some extent, what their lives are like. If we can, or if we choose to.

Having been in a similar people intensive sector, i tend to agree that an employee is responsible for time keeping. I need to reach my office at 9am in the morning and i have a 1.5 hour travel. I do tend to leave accordingly. I have done night shifts and graveyard shifts and one has to learn to accept it. One cannot defend one's action by saying a longer commute, earlier waking time, lack of sleep etc. At the end of the day you are working 8 hours plus 4 hours of travel which is your own doing. Find a home closer !

Is it fair to deduct half day wage for being late by 2 minutes, and that too in jobs which pay such measly amounts. If you are making such high demands, then you should be paying also proportionately well. Then it wouldn't matter so much if someone looses half day's wage.

The truth of this matter is but a question mark. Again the labour law is not conducive to hourly based payment under the Factories and Establishments Act. One either works 8 hours or works 4 hours and gets paid accordingly. Therefore, it is a pitfall of working in an industry such as this and one needs to accept it. If you can get up 5 minutes early it beats losing half day salary. This is again related to the previous remark of travel

You seem to think VRS amounts are given as charity. Actually, it is supposed to be a mutually beneficial settlement. As regards, tightening nuts and bolts, it is a bit strange that you first reduce somebody's work to just repeatedly tightening nuts and bolts all day for your own profit, and then complain that these guys tightening nuts and bolts demand decent wages. And, by the way, it is quite a tough job with measly rewards. But then there are things one has to do in life.

Agree to a certain extent. There needs to be a diginity of labour. But then there is also a price that you pay for skill

Can you explain why the morning meeting should not be considered work time (in such a time-sensitive occupation as this) and "it has to happen before they start working"? It is not so obvious to me.

It is a big explanation. The management is pushed to the corner for reduced costs to keep margins constant. This can be done by reducing costs of inputs or increasing productivity. While raw materials cost cannot be controlled what can be is productivity. Therefore the first thing one does is to measure productivity and move non productive activities outside of productive time. This is prevalent in my industry and i do buy this argument. All meetings, feedback and appraisals are done outside of productive time of 8 hours


While i will refrain from calling this a wasted article, it behooves us to understand some of the nuances of modern times in age old industries and appreciate the management's side. In the end, it is us stakeholders who put such expectations on management to perform the way they do

[simplyself]

One cannot treat the labourers as machines. I wonder whether the Suzuki plants elsewhere in the world treat workers so shabbily. Labour rules should be rigid and authorities should implement them in letter and spirit.

How did a general Manager die? Is it being implied that the Management killed him and placing the blame on union?

Bringing caste into so volatile a situation is a sure recipe for violence.

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by simplyself

One cannot treat the labourers as machines. I wonder whether the Suzuki plants elsewhere in the world treat workers so shabbily. Labour rules should be rigid and authorities should implement them in letter and spirit.

How did a general Manager die? Is it being implied that the Management killed him and placing the blame on union?

Bringing caste into so volatile a situation is a sure recipe for violence.

who brought in the caste here?

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by jhaji

I must thank you first, because your mail prompted me to go back to the original article in order to make at least some sense of your mail.



They are expecting to get paid better. You may think they are getting paid very WELL. I might think about someone he or she is getting paid very well. But that wont stop them from fighting for better wages. Besides, there would be proper well-accepted ways to assess what being paid very well in an industry amounts to. As an example, one of the standards could be the best that is paid in the auto industry. And if your workers are working faster and producing faster than other companies, they should get more and not less.

the minimum wage in the industry is Rs. 4880/- per month OR one can say roughly Rs. 187/- per day.
Since your employees are older - one can decide to pay them better. fortunately unfortunately that decision is on the company - no one can force them to decide on that. The company is NOT forcing anyone to work - they are free to leave if they are not happy working there.

Originally Posted by jhaji

Are you talking about the 2 minute absence? And regards the 'incentive', we are talking about this person who is getting 15, 000 every month after having worked as a trainee for three years at the salary of 1500, 2500 and 3500 in those years. Out of 15000, 8000 is incentive. If you consider 15000 as salary, as you seem to imply in your post with several references to high salaries, then the logic of salary should apply. But if you consider 8000 as incentive, you cannot say at the same time that they are being paid well.

the company is giving incentive to them for working better. when i said they are getting paid well - i meant the take home is GOOD. i wish i was clearer. my bad. hope this clarifies.

Originally Posted by jhaji

A certain amount of error is an accepted fact in any kind of work. Quality control departments are needed because of this, not because workers are cheats. Responsibility of reducing the error is a combined one of workers, management, quality control, shareholders and owners (after all they can insist on risky cost-cutting). Therefore, one need not expect to be abused for an occasional error, whatever the work.

a certain amount of error is acceptable - but careless is not. for quality control the person who is incharge of the production is mostly responsible. so that takes the onus on the labor working there on the production line that time. the management and the quality control team can train the employees on how to get it right the first time - but if lapses happen because of the carelessness and not because of lack of training - somebody on the line is responsible for it. and even after 3 years of training (which even i believe is preposterous) one gets it wrong - then there indeed is some problem with the person working. i am not endorsing abusing the workers anyhow. just a thought - what according to everyone here is an occasional error? 1%? 0.1%?

well think about it this way - if a pilot of an airline makes a mistake while landing maybe just 0.1% of the times - then too the plane landing not the right way would be 1 in every 1000. would you want to be on that flight?

since you said - quality control is responsible for it. let me explain how it works.

one worker making a mistake maybe 0.1% times in a month. there are 100 such workers on the line making similar number of mistakes on various parts. now suddenly the 0.1% of faults convert to 0.1X100 = 10%
not a very good scenario.
now just some food for thought - the quality control now needs to recheck not just 10% of the cars but the entire lot of 100% cars AGAIN - as they can not be sure as where all the mistakes might be. and then take out those cars which has some flaw or the other and send them back for rework.
REWORK = TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND RESOURCES
as you are not only redoing the same thing - you are also losing out on the opportunity of producing more.

now keep aside the production capacity and let's just concentrate on quality here. like the worker on the line, the quality control people are also humans. let's say they too make 0.1% of errors in checking AND god forbid the car with most errors (from production line) also falls into the error list of quality control - and this car is sent out in the market. now imagine the customer who has bought this car. we bhpians are fortunate enough to raise our doubts, queries and voices here - and fortunately at one level the car manufacturers DO listen to us. every car owner in india unfortunately is not on TBHP. ever wondered what one of those customers has to go through?
why - because there was a 0.1% error on the line - which in the end multiplied and found its way out of the factory.

Originally Posted by jhaji

I would certainly like that, the routine you describe. Fortunately, the workers are asking for much less.

The Maruti Suzuki worker in that article is trying to give us a glimpse of their life by describing the whole routine in detail. So that we can imagine, to some extent, what their lives are like. If we can, or if we choose to.

ever wondered what happens to the people in IT and especially the call centre guys who have to work the ungodly hours so that some customer sitting in the US can just ask them why their computer is not working without they plugging it in?

world over (and i am saying this because i have seen it) workers in manufacturing industry adjust their clocks according to the industrial demands - unfortunately only the manufacturers like lamborghini/bugatti/rolls royce have the luxury of working at their own leisure. company's who are into mass production have to manage around their problems.

Originally Posted by jhaji

The whole thing hangs on whether their demand for better wages and working conditions is just or not. Strike is justified if the demands are just. Because, in that case, the management is responsible for forcing the workers to go on strike. It is not as if the first things the worker did was to go on strike. It is an extremely extremely difficult thing to go on strike. There can be frivolous strikes in some places and sectors, and no body is saying that all unions are great. And I don't think any worker is asking for the right to kill.


Is it fair to deduct half day wage for being late by 2 minutes, and that too in jobs which pay such measly amounts. If you are making such high demands, then you should be paying also proportionately well. Then it wouldn't matter so much if someone looses half day's wage.

any idea about how toyota works? i've witnessed this myself (all thanks to the college's foreign industrial visit) workers in toyota reach the work place almost one hour before their scheduled time of work. the last one i saw entering was about half an hour before the shift time. it's just the culture they follow world wide. ever wondered why people make jokes about IST - indian standard time?? ever wondered why every where else in the world even a minute is valued?
as far as the measly sums are concerned - i have a different theory here. anyplace under the sun - the salaries are dependent purely on the cost of living there. all of us have friends abroad who are making HUGE amount of money when we compare it to INR - but at times we fail to notice that the cost of living in these places is also prohibitively high. just an off hand example - for a water bottle here - we pay Rs. 15/- while anywhere else that I have ever been - on an average it costs about $2. now let's convert that - Rs. 15/- VS Rs. 100/-

so if the employees outside the country are getting paid higher - its simply because their expenses there is also higher in the same ratio.

Originally Posted by jhaji

You seem to think VRS amounts are given as charity. Actually, it is supposed to be a mutually beneficial settlement. As regards, tightening nuts and bolts, it is a bit strange that you first reduce somebody's work to just repeatedly tightening nuts and bolts all day for your own profit, and then complain that these guys tightening nuts and bolts demand decent wages. And, by the way, it is quite a tough job with measly rewards. But then there are things one has to do in life.

i am slightly confused here. are you saying that the person tightening the nuts and bolts today would perform better in the paintshop tomorrow and even better in the welding shop the day after?
as far as i know - because of the repetition the quality and productivity efficiency both improve. please do not think of it at an individual level. think of it at a macro level where the manufacturer is an individual. think of it this way - a heart can not function better if it starts doing your kidney's job. and vice a versa. this applies to all the other parts of the body. each one has its own purpose and is best suited for that job.

Originally Posted by jhaji

If they did not think this, how did they make the demand??

Contract work is not the same in every sector. In some sectors, the highest paid are on contract.

Raise of 10000 every year and they refused it. They must be crazy. Maybe they didn't have this information. Could you share with us where you got this information from?

the same place where this discussion started - the same article

Originally Posted by jhaji

Can you explain why the morning meeting should not be considered work time (in such a time-sensitive occupation as this) and "it has to happen before they start working"? It is not so obvious to me.

it's quiet simple actually. all the morning meetings are basically planning meets for the day. where its decided what is the strategy for the day. for an 8 hour shift - it has to be done PRIOR to the shift start. similarly the warm exercises need to be done BEFORE the actual production.

when a game of soccer is being played - it's for 90 minutes. one needs to plan and make the strategy before those 90 minutes start and also the warm up needs to be done before that. going by the worker's logic - it should all happen between those 90 minutes - and any time that is taken other than that is simply cruel. and please don't tell me it's just a game - the soccer players earn their bread and butter because of it. think about it.

in short - morning meetings or anything like that is not to be done in productive time. 8 hours - the production has to happen. before or after that the strategy/planning/improvements need to take place.

Originally Posted by jhaji

I think you have put your finger exactly at the problem with the kind of policies regarding contract labour Suzuki is following. Because of the reason you state contract labour is exploited while doing the same work that employed labour does.

I congratulate the moderators for the rich conversation that we have had. And thank the 'nutcase' and the journalist to have put together the article.

though the conversation is quiet rich - all i can say is it's totally biased. i would request all the people who are thinking from their heart to consider - how many people work for them - and how much are you paying them? a kaam wali bai is paid maybe a grand and half for the work she does at your home - she makes up for her expenses by working at multiple places. if you think life's unfair towards here - why don't you pay her 10k each month for the same work??

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

I am not sure, but why so much venom? Do you have any personal enemity with the Maruti workers? Your tone reeks of someone who is not bothered about the have nots. If they dont have bread let them eat cake eh?

Do you call getting Rs 3000/month for 3 years and then Rs 15000 per month net as 'well paid'? Are you aware that the laborer (mathadi) who worked on ur house may be, earns Rs 350/day minimum? Which is 10000 per month for lifting bricks, from day one.

i am really sorry brother if i offended you in anyway. i have no clue where you stay - but if the labor(mathadi) in your area is getting paid that well - then i think i am in a different time zone. the basic wage is roughly Rs. 187/day.
i think what you mean is that the labor contractor charges Rs. 350/day. do you really believe that that's what he pays them??

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Car getting missed, sorry thats the check which QC should do. Bad cars are not the result of bad assembly, its the result of bad QC.

QC = quality check. which means they are checking the quality. they are responsible for not allowing bad cars to go out - they are not responsible for manufacturing bad cars. any manufacturing flaw is sole responsibility of the manufacturing line and no one else. (i am talking purely in the plant).
i agree that if the bad quality is out of the plant - the company as a whole is responsible for it. but i think we were talking about the problems "inside the company" NOT outside

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

No worker has asked salary for sitting around. They are asking for what is fair and just. The Japanese tries to run their factory as a WW2 labor camp, which is unacceptable.

suggest you re-read the article. expecting salary for 3 months when they were on a strike - according to me is asking for it for sitting around. and if you believe Japanese are running their factory as a WW2 labor camp - then i would love to know how - as i am sure such allegations are not just lose talks since they are coming from you. i would be happy to accept it if you tell me how the japanese are running their factories as WW2 labor camp and still managing to produce almost 0 defect vehicles year after year.

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Try getting up before 5 am and commute 30kms using Gurgaon public transport (especially in rains or fog stuck winters), and if you are half min late, please give up 3/4 day's salary. If you take a day off then give up 3 days salary. If you work overtime, earn only Rs 17 per hour. After you do this for a couple of years do tell us if you feel the same way about transport, overtime and paycuts.

no way a company can cut 3 days salary for a day's absence. i am sure there is some misrepresentation of truth here. their basic salary can be cut for a day AND the company can cut the incentive. now if their one day's incentive = 2 days salary - then the workers need to rethink about the leaves. like i had mentioned earlier - the incentives are solely dependent on the company. they can give incentives maybe 100 times the actual salary with their own terms and conditions.

discontinuing the transport facility was probably company's way of punishing them. this can't even be called as punishment as the company is not obliged to provide them with transportation. it's purely complimentary service. again - its under the company's decision to give any facility or not. and remember - its a facility - NOT an obligation.

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Oh so you want workers to come, put in 15 hour days and get paid for 8 hours. If you dont know meetings are very much a part of working hours.

how are they putting in 15 hours a day???? i am totally blank here.

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Be very careful in your statements mate!! Why drag SC/ST issue into this? Are people from lower strata always voilent as per you? Are Maruti workers so hired because they are SC/ST?
If you are refering to the worker's story that they got enraged due to a casteist statement made by a supervisor, please also read this article with an open mind, instead of dismissing it as all bullshit!!
Such horrible working conditions can make animals out of anyone, leave alone Maruti workers.

yikes!!! you got me on a wrong footing here brother. maybe i am responsible for the misunderstanding. i never meant any racist remarks as you have taken them. my bad. all i said was that the people from SC/ST are exploiting the freedom and protection given to them by the government. believe you me - i get to see these guys misbehaving, getting violent and what not - only on the grounds that they threaten us that we made some racist comments. it's not easy to handle the situation - trust me on that.


few facts i would like to put forward:

I am into manufacturing of auto components, and I am a vendor to VECVL, FML, MAN Trucks and Buses, TATA, Mahindra 2 Wheelers. Being a vendor, we are expected to provide them components where the rejections are considered in PPM (parts per million) and not Percentage. Our targets at our end are 100 PPM or below. which means that not more than 100 components out of 1 million supplied in a month should be defective. Defective can be total rejection as well as reworkable. in terms of percentage the permissible rejection is 0.0001%

To get the optimum production with the best possible quality - some systems like one person for one job, first time right, and minimal movement are put in place. which in normal terms mean - one person should be assigned only on kind of job, in which he can become an expert (which would mean minimal chances of error), the job OR component made should be made right in the first attempt itself. minimal movement means - that the worker need not move unnecessarily AND the components that are being made should not stop unnecessarily on the line. hence conveyors are put - so that while the components are travelling they can be assembled - which means that the transit time and assembly time are merged which result in better productivity.

The world is following Japan for their way of production - and believe you me - you can not get better quality OR quantity than them - and we all know it.
No one here would like to wait 6 months for a Maruti Suzuki Swift VDi - so the company needs to produce more vehicles as the demand is more.
I've never heard a Rolls Royce customer complaining when he has to wait 6 months to get his vehicle (maybe because i don't know many people who are actually waiting for their rolls) - but then again - their vehicle is bespoke and completely customised as against the swift diesel which is mass produced. and again - there is a good reason why they are not as many rolls on the road as swifts - they are unaffordable for most.

There is a snow ball effect that happens in the Automobile industry. the labor is cheap in india - that's why the manufacturers are making india its hub since the labor is cheap - the vendors are cheap. since the vendors are cheap the products are cheap. which makes the over all car - cheap. if we end up paying the labors as much as what they are getting paid abroad - a swift diesel might end up being unaffordable to a lot of people i know.

if i've offended anyone here - please believe it - my intentions were not to do so.
Labors killing anyone should not be acceptable. i don't believe their story that only one person - that to GM HR was the only one who died in the fire caused by short circuit.
their demands were unjust. they were being greedy and unreasonable.
there is no way that they company is forcing anyone to work. if you are unhappy with the work environment - you can LEAVE. if you are travelling for 8 hours a day - that's your problem - not the company's. find a home closer or find a job closer to where you live.


@subraiyr
thanks a lot buddy. read your comment after i posted my longish one. you put it in a lot better words than i did. thanks once again
__________________

[jhaji]

Subraiyer and Samyakmodi, you are welcome to your views. Excuse me, but I can't get into a point-by-point argument with you. It is almost as tedious as repeatedly tightening nuts and bolts. It would be worthwhile to do that if we are sitting across a negotiating table.

I am beginning to understand how tough it must be to negotiate even marginal improvements in wages and working conditions with company managements.

[ike]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

their demands were unjust. they were being greedy and unreasonable.
there is no way that they company is forcing anyone to work. if you are unhappy with the work environment - you can LEAVE. if you are travelling for 8 hours a day - that's your problem - not the company's. find a home closer or find a job closer to where you live.
__________________

It's equally unjust & unfair to brand all workers greedy & summarily dismiss their demands as unjust. Applying the same standards to MSIL, you could call them greedy for not paying fairly & even more so for exploiting the workers by employing them on contract for 3 long years under the pretext of training. It's clear that MSIL takes advantage of the workers by paying them peanuts in the initial years. The transportation facility is not a right but it seems it was discontinued to inconvenience the labour after changing the timing. And mind you, transportation was not free. Now the narration by the worker may be biased and exaggerated, but so are MSIL's stories. I'd like to start with the CCTV cameras. They don't switch themselves off.

[SANSI]

It is evident that whatever reported here is true. The Indian product tag is only for a name sake. I feel like boycotting Suzuki's(Maruti's) and feel ashamed to own a Suzuki Ritz.

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by ike

It's equally unjust & unfair to brand all workers greedy & summarily dismiss their demands as unjust. Applying the same standards to MSIL, you could call them greedy for not paying fairly & even more so for exploiting the workers by employing them on contract for 3 long years under the pretext of training. It's clear that MSIL takes advantage of the workers by paying them peanuts in the initial years. The transportation facility is not a right but it seems it was discontinued to inconvenience the labour after changing the timing. And mind you, transportation was not free. Now the narration by the worker may be biased and exaggerated, but so are MSIL's stories. I'd like to start with the CCTV cameras. They don't switch themselves off.

i think there is some confusion here my friend.

i was talking about the way the article has been written - and i am doubtful about it's authenticity. the problems mentioned are not actually problems - and i have my own doubts regarding the CCTV reports.
whether they were actually switched off OR not is something i am not too sure about.

the "problems" that have been mentioned - didn't seem a problem to me - hence tried to explain. But subraiyr has penned them down in a better way.

[amit_purohit20]

It is a well known fact that Korean and Japanese companies have very tight workschedules and loads of work as compared to others. Japanese people themselves slog a lot and expect Indian people to work harder than they would as obviously they own the company. I know about a friend who is a very hardworker who after joining Maruti said that the workpressure was very high. I would think twice before joining any Japanese or Korean company. And to those guys who here are comparing Maruti to IT company, please keep in mind that the nature of work in a mechanical company is far different and far exhaustive physically.

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

longish one.
__________________

This longish post makes things more clear.
Most posts have empathised with workers, few have discussed economic theory, fewer still have given the management side. I felt your post gives the most succinct picture of a management's perspective. Ultimately I go home with a more balanced picture and conclusions. That's what makes this thread a very necessary one. Thanks once again

[Agarwaka]

Originally Posted by harshaguduru

wow.
and finally how different is the situation in other car companies.
also a decade ago there were massive protests in the USA due to increased mechanization of the production line and people were employed only to track the work of the robots. is that not possible in india?

The feasibility of deploying robots on the line is primarily a result of a cost-benefit and replacement cost analysis. In the developed markets, the labour wage bill is significantly higher than in India and this, accompanied by the volumes, lends itself to faster adoption of robotics and automation. The situation in India is significantly different on both fronts - an obvious one is that our labour costs are a fraction of those abroad, and very few plants have achieved the scale that justifies using robotics (I guess these would primarily be plants of Maruti & Hyundai - domestic & export production).

The above factors coupled with relatively higher uncertainty of the market due to various economic and regulatory forces, increases the complexity of this decision for an OEM. That being said, it is noteworthy to keep in mind that with our increasing wage bill, NREGA related impact, continuing migration to Metros / Tier 1 cities, and potentially disruptive (no aspersions being cast) unions, the adoption of robotics could actually be influenced by economic reasons other than those in the direct cost-benefit analysis.

Originally Posted by amit_purohit20

It is a well known fact that Korean and Japanese companies have very tight workschedules and loads of work as compared to others. Japanese people themselves slog a lot and expect Indian people to work harder than they would as obviously they own the company. I know about a friend who is a very hardworker who after joining Maruti said that the workpressure was very high. I would think twice before joining any Japanese or Korean company. And to those guys who here are comparing Maruti to IT company, please keep in mind that the nature of work in a mechanical company is far different and far exhaustive physically.

I agree on the Japanese work schedules, having seen it up close and personal. However, based on certain personal experiences (unable to get into specifics), I am also aware of how this particular company (the one related to my experience, no auto OEM) viewed Indian labour and it was extremely disheartening to see how little they cared for the workers' well being and this was extremely perplexing given the emphasis placed by the broader Japanese society on respect and honour. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[su1978]

the way in which the entire episode happened has definitely left a bitter taste in everybody's mouth. There are always two sides of a coin but a third angle about lesser pay and deductions cannot be ruled out. I myself handle a team of around 300+ people and have an idea about the way in which these temp labourers are handled. MSIL instead of giving the salaries themselves, hand over to some contractors who make some good amount out of it. That is why ultimately these labours get less than what they actually deserve.

Secondly, since i live in Delhi and have a fair idea about the locals working at the manesar factory of MSIL, on just a little provocation, the locals can do just anything. Mostly they do not think about any consequences.

Thirdly, japanese are really hardworking people but they do not have any respect for personal life of any of their employees. Having previously worked at a World leading office automation japanese company with its name in RED, i can confidently say that. One must keep in mind that most of the theories and principles that have worked world over have failed in india in terms of human handling. Be it Mr greg chappel coaching our indian team or the japanese management of MSIL with its own philosophies.

Fourthly, our ever increasing greed of Corporates which just believes in crunching numbers always tries to crush the people at the bottom and obtain the results. There is a limit to everything. Understand, that manpower is available in abundance but that does not mean or it does not give the liberty to the senior management teams to create undue pressure and get the desired results.

[shiju.dba]

There may be multiple possibilities for this issue

1) This incidents may be funded by some other rival companies in order to affect Maruti sales and to boost their own sales. Check the list of beneficiaries by checking the sales statistics of last few months after and before the strike.

2) Genuinely due to increase of wage and workers not happy with management policies and the workload/work atmosphere.

3) As mentioned by su1978, Locals are too much aggressively responding even to slight provocations.

[manishkapadia]

I read this article a week back . Then i read it once again because i did not want to Jump to any quick conclusion.

Does any of you not feel that the way the article is written seems too articulate to be worded by a factory worker ( Nothing Personal against them Pls ) . Crafted and described to perfection the worker may have done way better working for a newspaper or an article writer . There could also be some agenda here .

While the working conditions have been described in great detail Which i still think is sad if correct , the incident about death of the manager is hazy at best.

The article also said that labourers in Honda are paid much more . Noone actually stopped them from moving over to other companies . If actually these opression had been going on for decades then why were the unhappy lot not moving out.

Once again i am not being judgemental and still feel that there is scope for improvement in labour working conditions , but if my Gut feel is that this article has been written with a purpose and an agenda .
And is doing well at its intended purpose.

[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by amit_purohit20

And to those guys who here are comparing Maruti to IT company, please keep in mind that the nature of work in a mechanical company is far different and far exhaustive physically.

If you get a chance work on a IT project with Koreans/Japaneese. Try it for out about 6 months and see how you feel. Atleast with car making workers do not innovate. Apologize for slightly being off topic but wanted to share.,