Blog Update: Article from ET where NASSCOM says BPO doesnt need any unions. Click here
I was interested in this article that appeared in the rediff a few days ago that asked the question whether today's IT industry workers needed a Union to protect their interests, particularly in India. While all anti-leftists can happily yell on big NO NO NO, it might be worth to see the merits and cons of the claim.
IT workers are the cyber-coolies of the day. Many a time we have heard, seen and experienced sitting for hours together in our little cubicles - sometimes days - without sufficient
breaks and definitely no overtime pay. Many a time we have seen impersonal HR sneering at our claims for raise with the conviction that there will always be a young talent in the market willing to offer his services at a much lower pay. Many a time we have sat and wondered through the quarterly result publications wondering where the 240% growth and 80% increase in earnings was going to, because it certainly didnt translate into salaries. Many a time we hear of huge MNCs laying off thousands of workers at one shot and wondering when this disease will strike us down. Many a time we have seen efforts going unrewarded, politics playing the key part in growth etc etc.,So IT is no different from other industry when it comes to labor issues ? So how is it that of all industries, IT, one of the key factors boosting the economic prospects of India, can exist without any labor laws ? Doesnt the question seem genuine ? Is the IT boom and the industry's workforce being exploited by rich capitalists for their own profit ? After all, arent the workers causing this growth, expansion and contributing to the economic success of the nation ?
Let us flip the question. Isnt it a fact that absence of such labor laws, Unions and other bureaucratic processes make the Indian IT industry the most wanted ? Imagine if we end up having strikes every other day in some software company or BPO, why would any foreign investor decide to put his money & investment at risk ?
However the CITU and other big trade union conglomerates are already onto spread their wings over the one million plus IT workers in the nation. There is already a IT professional forum - http://www.itpfindia.org/in - that has over 1000 members, which is unofficially, a trade union. Over a period of time these things will gain strength and become full fledged labor unions.
So what next ? After all the progress that we are making and the big strides and successes of the IT industry in India, any notion of trade unions, labor laws spell DISASTER. As we have seen in the past, while there have been genuine reasons why unions have been formed, more often than not, they disrupt normal & smooth functioning of factories and industries causing not only blows to economy but to the laborers as well. Furthermore, unions exist to protect the interests of the lower middle class and average and poor workers who may go hungry if they are shown the door abruptly etc.,
IT workers are more or less taken care well. Infact one could argue that it is IT management that is suffering because of the labor attrition and not the other way around. However it is time that IT/BPO employers wake up. If there are talks of unions etc. going on in this industry, it is because of dissatisfaction that is spreading with the labor workforce. When dissatisfaction is coupled with politics, it is a recipe for a huge mess. Employers have the power to stop this epidemic of trade unions from spreading within the IT industry if only they want to .
Every organization should ensure that the employee-satisfaction rate is always above a certain threshold. They have to control attrition and also protect their workforce. They have to capitalize on the fact that IT workers typically dislike and hate bureaucracy & trade unions - and that when taken care properly there would be no necessity for the labor force to form any unions. Employers have to realize that a dissatisfied workforce leads to Unions/strikes/hartals etc., which spell nothing failure for their organization and the Indian IT industry as well.
Political parties have always exploited the weak minded and dissatisfied working class and channeled their unhappiness to the parties' own benefits. There is still time left in the IT industry to cover itself up against a similar fate.
Ciao..
13 comments:
Siva:
Good blog. As long as the organization come out of the tunnel view that IT workforce have no other things to do in life, they will have issues with workforce. Salary is the issue that might make these people think about Unions.
It is the explotiation by making people work for long hours and weekends and making them travel couple of hours each day that makes working in the IT diffcult. People would spend 2 hours with their kids rather than travelling.
The first thing they could to show that they care of their employees is to change the name of their HR dept to Personnel Department. At present, in both BPO and IT companies, by calling the employees human resource, they treat them like how manufacturing industry treats Iron Ore, or Cattle Feed. The day they realize that the IT staff too have a family and feelings... they would do better..
Karthik
shiva,
A trade union is offcourse going to be good.But the prblm with it is that it wont remain as unions, the political parties will slowly put there head into it and from there you can be assured everythign will go downhill.
Maybe a welfare society or something on that line which does not involve the political parties and maganged/ mainted just by the IT folks will be good.
Do we need some organization to take care of our welfare?.yes.There is a growing difference between a person in IT and a non IT person, in terms of money, knowledge, lifestyle and views.These difference might bring lot of prblms in the future and we do need a organization to speak for us.
Nice read!
I think IT as an industry is hyped and IT workers are overfed, so guess there is no reason for 'unions'.
But the bridge between IT companies and non-IT companies, and similarly between IT workers and non-IT workers, there is a major difference in pay-packets. I feel that the opportunity called 'IT' will saturate by the time needy-poor get hold of such technologies. So, this could be yet another example of a huge-set of population missing the bus to riches.
The moment IT companies identify rigid processes, IT workers are bound to be redundant i.e no-use-for one's intelligence or experience but only the ability to follow rules matters!
Well, no unions pls. I was even against the IT ministry.
But lets wait and see. If tomorrow the IT firms start laying off 'IT Professionals' even in the hundreds, it could well trigger the union mindset.
Lets hope we dont reach that stage.
Shiva
Well thought out post.
Eshwar-"If tomorrow the IT firms start laying off 'IT Professionals' even in the hundreds, it could well trigger the union mindset." Now that will interesting to see.
Karthik - thanks. I dont think it will be just salary..Job security is one of the key things. And I agree with the RESOURCE part - it may be true that we are indeed RESOURCES, but when one says it, it sounds awful..
Sen- overall, it looks like you are pro-union.I guess 'Welfare Society' and 'Trade Union' share the same difference between 'Narpani mandram' and 'Rasigar mandram' :)
sanchapanzo - thanks.. but Iam not too sure abt the redundant part. Innvoation is what keeps the industry alive and so it may not be all redudant.. what do you think ?
eswar - I guess IT ministry is a definite need for lot of reasons.. a Trade union is a different ballgame alltogether. But yeah, there are lot of triggers to ignite the need of unions and only employers have major switches to prevent that..
Dinesh - thanks.. as you say, IT is still young as opposed to other industries.. It may be a while before these things happen here.
ganesh - thanks.. the cat looks cute, btw.
Good one Siva….
But if I am not wrong the Unions are only for the non technical, non professional workers, not for the Professionals like Engineers and MBA’s.(Ashok Leyland is an example. In Auto or manufacturing industries this difference is huge including the different color uniform, separate cafeteria, separate bus for professionals and workers). The Unions are to protect the exploitation of work done by the less educated workers. It is easy for the industrial bosses to exploit them if the Unions are not in place. As IT industry does not have any non professional workers, we don’t need any unions. In fact even the labour laws are also not applicable to us. The Management can able to easily sack or fire an Engineer in an industry with out any problem, but to fire a worker they have to undergo some process and it is not easy. But in my opinion Unions are necessary for the workers not for professionals. In my point view both capitalism and communism to the core is dangerous.
Shiva,
I think maybe at the moment IT as an industry thrives on 'innovation', but this trend cant last long i.e this innovation. Time will come when, the industry captains will decide to move away from the 'knowledge(what is in the head)' way to the 'documented process(what is in the paper)' way. Maybe designing new applications or writing code wont be a difficult task anymore, with the existence of thousands of template copies can be used for developing newer stuff.
Thus, rather than inventing new products and pumping more money towards it, time will come when industry captains will think of consolidating their investments in order to see the return of investment. Clients will get bored with the next version craze and the point-upgrades of various products and will insist on stable products.
I think in future companies wont run for towards the 'next-big-thing' but want to exploit the 'current-best-thing'. I think 'Sustainable development' will be the key.
I think 'innovation' will continue as long as man is there in this world, but the evangelists will have a hard time impressing the public why they need this newer product!
Sancho...agree to disagree with your thought. Innovation and invention have been practiced by man for thousands of years. And man has not grown tired of new and freaky products, gadjets and applications.
Yes there may be slumps here and there , now and then but facination with innovation will never die out.
Its as constant as change itself !!
Eswar/Shiva,
Agreed with 'innovation' and the 'change-wave' will go on...
In most Indian IT services companies, you can see the race to finish projects in shorter time with better quality. Is this possible i.e the less time and more quality ?
A code-robot can finish projects at shorter time, or a human can reuse existing code and then add a few tweaks and finish it at shorter time. This is what I was referring to i.e 'consolidation of existing knowledge'.
Similiarly, when it comes to 'more quality' part of your deliverables, is it possible? It is quite obvious that humans are bound to make errors , while a testing robot wont make errors because it is programmed that way.
So, it is easier this way i.e 'reusing existing knowledge'. Maybe 'developing newer stuff from scratch' is also an alternative - but the newer stuff hasnt gone through all the iterations of user-testing etc., so there is no guarantee that the newer stuff will work best.
So, consolidating with the existing innovations is the key for growth, maybe 'next-big-innovation' is also important, but the problem with the 'next-big' is that, you dont know 'how big it is?'.
Sometimes a known devil is better than an unknown one.
tharani - while you are right abt unions for workers, IT workers are also no different. They are still cyber coolies.
uma - maybe you are right..but how long will that situation hold ?
eshwar/sanchapanzo - lively discussion. I think the bottomline is job security and a guarantee of continued employment - for which innovation seems a must in this IT world to me, atleast for now.
maybe Murthy.. But even unions started in the same way. So there must be a guarantee that this kind of association doenst have any hidden agenda behind it.. Our politicians are very smart and they know how to manipulate people and touch key areas of their lives so as to garner support and gain entry.
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