WAGES OF WORK

CHAPTER NINE
WORKERS AND MORALS
Why managers
What
Can wages
is the relationship
a morally
and workers
sensitive
between
liveissue?
together?
wages and justice?

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Examples

THE WORKER DESERVES

WAGES
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 Problem 1
You are a labourer on a construction site earning Rs 150 per day;
Rs 10 is taken away by the labour contractor;
sometimes you are fined Rs 20 for apparently committing some
mistake;
sometimes you are paid weekly, sometimes even later; your monthly
rent to the shanty is Rs 400;
your food and other expenses shoot over Rs 2000;
you cannot work everyday of the month no work no pay
At least once a year you wish to visit your family that lives 1500
kilometers away
How are you going to take care of your family consisting of your
wife, three children, one of whom is polio stricken and the aging
parents?
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 The larger picture
Farm labourers
Landless labourers
Factory workers
People working in cottage industries
Construction workers etc.
The issue of fixation of minimum wages is of primary
importance in a country like India where 300 million
people are employed in the informal sector with no
collective bargaining power. This is 93 percent of the
workers.
(See for Statewise Statistics: http://www.paycheck.in )

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 Moral Challenge
It is clear that policy and planning,
management and governance has failed
in our country
An overwhelming labour force or human
resource is abjectly unemployed,
underemployed and underpaid
How can you as manager take up such an
enormous moral challenge?
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 Problem 2
You are a Class XII passed and trained in secretarial course
woman, who work as a receptionist and billing clerk at a small hotel
20 rooms capacity in Mumbai and your take-home monthly
salary is Rs 4,500.
Although you have been working here for over ten years, no other
benefits providend fund, medical expenses etc. accrue to you
An young man who has joined as supervisor of the restaurant
section enjoys double of your salary and benefits.
When you very politely pointed out the situation, your employer
plainly told you to leave the job if you felt things were not fair and
said that there are people who are willing to work at your position for
Rs 3,000.
You live in a slum near Thane and travel to Andheri for work, your
husband died in the Mumbai Bomb blast, you have two children
studying in the high school What would you do?
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The larger picture

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/cgi-bin/bl.pl?subclass=320

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 Moral Challenge
Women make up half of the total population
Women can also contribute 50% of total human resource
Social, religious and cultural prejudices affect majority of
the womens workforce
Women face job and pay discrimination
Overwork at workplace and the traditional household
chores occupy a womans all the waking hours
Have the institutions of society, religion, politics and
economics have failed and betrayed half of humanity?

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Underpaid - Overpaid

WORK, WORKER, WAGES,

JUSTICE, FAIRNESS, EQUALITY
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 Problem
You are an Indian and employed as a shop floor manager in one of Dubais
well known malls
Under you there are 80 staff, the majority of whom are Indians, the others
include people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines
Since the recession the value of their pay is down by 30%
Due to recession the management has further reduced the pay by 20%
The shared living conditions of the staff are sub-human
Often there are social and nationalistic flare-ups
The construction workers and oil rig workers were on strike and the
companies and the government has dealt with them severely and also
deported several thousand
Your Dilemma: You feel for your staff and would like to put on record
their difficulties by arguing how the entire situation is detrimental to
the organization; on the other hand, if you do, you may lose your job
yourself, and it will significantly damage your career. How will you
proceed?

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 The larger picture
There are over five million work force from
India in UAE alone
75% of these are unskilled and semi-
skilled labourers
After the workers action (labour riots in
local terms) several thousand Indians
were deported

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 The moral challenge
For the people in the above case justice is a
sad joke
For the people of India, who have all the rights
enshrined in the constitution and further
strengthened legally through a slew of labour
laws, labour justice seems to be a chimera
How to face this monumental moral challenge of
just wages?

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To live together

ACTING MORALLY

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 How to do things morally
Why wages should be paid?
Why treat men and women on equal
grounds for equal work and wages?
Why workers must have collective
bargaining right?
Why act morally?
DISCUSS: How does the last question differ
from the rest of the three questions?
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Consider two managers
System Oriented
Manager Rajan is MBA, well
experienced and relates the
people to the system at
workplace sincerely and
formally
Wonders what is wrong with
employees
No matter how hard he tries
there is little response
Most of the time spent in
conflict resolution
Relationship Oriented
Manager Sitaram is MBA, well
experienced relates the
system to the people at the
workplace and is sincere to
them
Succeeds in motivating the
employees
Quick response
High productivity
Minimum conflicts

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 Debate

The law is for man;

the man is not for
the law

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 THANK YOU

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