Trade Unions in Service Sector

Group 9 -Ramavtar Meena PGP27315

Rashik Gupta PGP27316Sarthak Agarwal PGP27317Shailesh Kumar PGP27318

Shibashish Behera PGP27319Shishir Kumar Kisan PGP27320

Shreya Bhatnagar PGP27321Vinay L PGP27330

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Trade Unions

A 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

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Government Regulations

• Trade Unions Act, 1926 deals with registration, rights, liabilities, responsibilities and fund utilization of trade unions

• Industrial disputes act, 1947 is applicable to the companies with more than 100 employees

• Provisions of factories act, 1948

• Apart from this there are more than 55 central labor laws and 100 state labor law

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Objectives of Trade Unions

• Negotiating machinery– Working Conditions– Wages

• Discipline• Employee – employer relationship• Platform for participation in management• Prevent employee discrimination

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Types of Unions• Craft Union: Unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level.

• Industrial Unions: All workers in the same industry are organised into the same union regardless of skill and trade.

• General Union: Represent workers from many unions or companies.

• White-Collar Union: Union of white collar employees.

• Blue-Collar Union: Union of blue collar employees.

• Closed Union: Union with restricted membership to a certain defined category of employees.

• Open Union: Union with limited restrictions on workers that can join.

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Levels of Participation

National Level

Organization Level

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Case Examples

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Life Insurance Corporation of India

• National Federation of Insurance Field Workers of India (NFIFWI)

• National Level Union representing 21000 development officers of LIC

• Non-political in nature

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• To foster a spirit of co-operation and comradeship among members• To secure improvement of working and living conditions of its members• To safeguard the interest of members by all legitimate, peaceful and

democratic means• To represent its members in front of management and government• To conduct trade disputes on behalf of its members• To prepare members to play a legitimate role in their national, social and

cultural life• To secure equality of rights and prevent discrimination among employees• To develop healthy relationship between employees and employers• To foster a spirit of service to policy-holders• To compensate member or members for loss arising out of trade disputes• To develop ways and means for spread of insurance education

Objectives of NFIFWI

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Constituent StructureNFIFWI

Central Federation

Zonal Association

Branch Association

Divisional Association

Federal Council

National Executive

Central Secretariat

Office Bearers

Zonal Council

Zonal Executive Council

Office Bearers

Divisional Council

Divisional Executive Council

Office Bearers

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Issues Faced by Union• Recognition of NFIFWI• Improvements in GOIB(Graded Impact on Incentive Bonus) scheme

– Performance Linked Lump-sum Incentive, previously a part of cost for calculation of Incentive Bonus, removed after negotiations by NFIFWI with the management

• Seeking an offline option to compulsory online Test for agents• Demanding a wage hike of 40% while management is offering 17.5%• Demands to Personnel Department

– Third option for Development officers who have not opted for pension– Grant of full pension for employees with 20 years service– Payment of Marketing expenses, Grooming expenses, special area allowance

• Favorable Result– The management increased the Group Insurance to Rs. 8 lakhs and also

increased the housing loan to Rs.13 Lakhs and also granted second loan

World’s fourth largest rail network

Having workforce of 14 lakhs regular employees and 3 lakhs casual employees make it world’s

second largest employer

Having trace of 114,500 K.M. and 7500 stations

INDIAN RAILWAYS

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Organizational Structure

• Divided into 17 railway zones– Each zone headed by General Manager (GM)

• Zones further divided into 68 divisions– Each division is headed by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM)

• Divisions further divided into stations– Each station is controlled by station Superidendent

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Organizational StructureIndian Railways

Gazetted Employees

Non-Gazetted Employees

Group A Group B Group C(60000 employees)

Group D(80000 employees)

Selection through Indian

Civil Service Examination

conducted by UPSC

Selection through 19

Railway Recruitment

Boards

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Trade Union in Indian railways

• Group A & Group B:– Federation of Railway officers associations (FROA)

• Group C & Group D:– National Federation of Indian Railway men established in 1953

• Affiliated to International Transport Worker’s Federation (ITF) and International Labour Organization (ILO)

– All India Railway men’s Federations established in 1924• These unions are affiliated with trade union like Indian National Trade

Union Congress (INTUC)• Each union has its functional units at board, zonal and divisional level • Office bearers are elected by members of the trade unions • Elections are conducted by the unions and they inform names of the office

bearer to the respective units of the railways

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Industrial Relations• Divisional level industrial relations are handled by a director level officer• Zonal level industrial relations are handled by a chief personal officer at

joint secretary level of IRPS cadre• Board level IR issues are handled by member staff of Railway board along

with other principal secretary level officer of IRPS cadre• Permanent Negotiation machinery (PNM)

– To maintain contact with trade unions– Six PNM to be conducted at divisional level with each trade union in a year– Four PNM to be conducted with each trade union at zonal level in a year– Two PNM to be conducted at Railway Board level in a year

• Participation of Railway Employee in Management (PREM)– Meeting held between management and trade unions at all levels of the

organization – Agenda - Management takes employee’s views on issues regarding operations

Bharat Sanchar Nigam LimitedConglomeration of several Trade Unions

NFTE

BTEU

SNATTA

SNEA

AIBSNLEATEPU

BDPA

FNTO

BSNLEU

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The Main Unions in BSNL are:

1. BSNL Employees' Union (EU, CITU)

2. Federation of National Telecom Organisation (FNTO, INTUC)

3. National Federation of Telecom Employees (NFTE, sympathetic to AITUC)

4. Bharatiya Telecom Employees' Union (BTEU, BMS)

5. National Council of 10 other BSNL employees' unions.

A Joint Consultative Machinery exists at all levels (district, area, circle, national). The agenda of the committees are all matters pertaining to policies, operations, human resources. Meetings are bi-monthly at circle level and quarterly at national level.

The main issues for telecom employees of BSNL are:

1. Privatisation of BSNL

2. Wage settlements

3. Employment security and job reservations

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BSNL Employees Union (BSNL EU)

• AFFILIATION: The Union is affiliated to Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the Central Trade Union

• CIRCLE WISE: AP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, KeralaKarnataka, WB, Punjab & Orissa

• ORGANISATION: The structure of the union shall be unitary in character. For the administration of the affairs of the union, it shall function through the following bodies : Central Head quarters (CHQ) Circle Head Quarters Divisional / District Branch Local Branch

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• AIMS & OBJECTIVES:

To organize and unite the persons employed in BSNL Oriented Trade Union movement amongst the BSNL workers aimed at effective

and efficient organization for prosperity and progress To promote social, cultural, educational and economic upliftment of the

members To safe guard and promote interests, rights and liberties of members through

peaceful bilateral settlement of problems To seek permanent solution of outstanding problems and promote healthy

industrial relations in services without any class consideration

• GRANT OF RECOGNITION:

Recognition for Circle will be granted by CHQ Recognition for District (SSA) and local branch will be granted by Circle or CHQ.

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• Problems Encountered

Multiplicity of unions leading to lower membership per union and subsequent financial hiccups

Constant switching of alliances leading to increased agitation among workers 1st verification: Independent unions 2nd verification: EU & FNTO against NFTE & BMS 3rd verification: EU & FNTO split 4th verification: EU against FNTO & NFTE

Differences over promotion, absorption of daily wagers, contract employees, pensioners

CITU and AITUC are partners in the Left alliance nationally but split in BSNL

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SBI Staff Association• Offices

– Headquarter: Kolkatta– Branches: West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, The North-Eastern States, Bihar,

Orissa, UP, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Uttaranchal etc.

• Objectives– To protect and promote the interests of all members by legitimate and

constitutional means– Proper representation of the employees on the Board of Directors.– Provide funds for relief, compensation or legal assistance for distressed

employees. – To work in co-operation with other trade unions to work towards an

objective that is inconsistent with the spirit of Indian Trade Union Act, 1926

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Centre

Gen Council

Central Committee

Executive Committee

Disciplinary Action Committee

Grievance Committee

Structure

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SBI Staff Association

• Prime Roles– Presidents– Secretaries– Treasurers– Honorary Chairman and MD of SBISA Co-Op Bank

• Election Process– Democratic Process– Lower level committee elects the higher level committee– Elect members of some of the same level committees.

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Roles and Responsibilities

• Presidents: – Watchful eye over the general affairs of the union– Along with the secretaries they are to address the concerns of lower hierarchy level’

s concerns.

• Secretaries– Look after the affairs of the union from his level– Co-ordinate between other committees in his level and the ones under him– Scrutinize the books and accounts of all the committees under him.

• Treasurers– Handling the accounts of the union from their level– Submission of account reports to council and committees– He shall grant receipts and countersign vouchers, bills or orders for payment of

money

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Association's success

• Grievance Redressal System of SBI – The Scheme for Grievance Redressal System (GRS) has been framed

under Section 43 of the State Bank of India Act, 1955– The system is in place to address the grievances of individual

employees

• IR & Recognition of Unions (SBI)– Guided by ‘Code of Discipline in Industry’, crafted in the 15th session of

the tripartite Indian Labor Conference– Sets the guidelines for recognition of unions and grievance addressal

procedure for the unions.

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Aviation Sector

• Spurred by the labor dispute in Jet Airlines in 2008

• Continued strikes hit the service sector badly

• Jet lost about Rs 400 crore in a 5 day strike

• This incident was followed by Air India strike of 4 days: lost about Rs 100 crore

• So country’s 2500 pilots along with other employees decided to have a trade union

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Trade Unions

• National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil) is represented by three unions:– Aviation Industries Employees Guild (AIEG)– Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA)– Indian Pilots Guild (IPG): over 25000 employees are part of this

• Kingfisher, Spicejet,IndiGo and GoAir do not have any union at any level but have welfare associations

• They all are affiliated to AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress; formed in 1920)

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Structure of AIEG• Pilot Representative

• Cabin Crew Representative

• Airport Employees Representative

• In June 2011, 10 unions representing the different sections of the employees of Air India, including, pilots, aircraft technicians, ground staff and cabin crew, Aircraft Engineers, Radio officers and Flight officers, Service Engineers as well as the officers came together at Mumbai and decided to form the “Core Committee of Joint Forum of Air India and Indian Airlines”

Electoral process

• Chief Holding positions: (Union and regional)– President– Secretary– Assistant Secretary– Treasurer

• Democratic: Members cast their votes on pre-decided dates

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• Salary: Non-payment of PLI which accounted for 50-80% of salary

• Delay in salary payment: major role during “no pay no work” agitation by Air India employees

• Integration of employees : when Indian Airlines and Air India merged in 2007

• Encourage other private airlines to become a part of the union

Issues dealt with

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Problems faced by trade unions

• Political influence• Fragmented Structure– Multiple unions– Unstable relationship– Power struggle can lead to violence

• Illiteracy and lack of training• Lack of interest• Narrow support and coverage– More than 90% of workforce in unorganised sector

• Exploitation on basis of caste or religion

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Recommendations

• One union per organization

• Develop internal leadership

• Recognition from top management

• Train employees regarding importance of unions

• Paid Union Officials

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Thank You