Industrial Absenteeism

Absenteeism is related to new values & norms which are developing among the work force as a result of technological development work & leisure are now cherished by the worker & thus he wants to enjoy along with the monetary benefits he gets for his monetary benefits he gets for his services. The economic consideration therefore decides whether one would like to be absent from the work. high absenteeism among labour is due to is rural orientation & its frequent urge for rural exodus. Absenteeism is high in industries due to the fact that the labour wants some rest from daily routine of work. the incidence of industries fatigue, trying climate, universal malnutrition and the appallingly bad working condition aggravate the feeling for change among industrial workers & sometimes impel them to visit their village labour frequently for rest & relaxation. The absenteeism is also due to the internal administration of on organization the work milieu is very important since a large part of the workers daily life is spent there the atmosphere obtaining in a plant, therefore, affect his attitude to his work ,and either persuades him to attend regularly or keeps him away. Irritating uncertainty, irregularity and confusion in the factory are likely to be important cause of absenteeism. the attitude & practice of the management also

contribute to the absenteeism. A traditional management treats workers as hireling while an enlightened management treats them as human being. This difference in behavior leads, in the former situation, to light absenteeism and in the situation to a close affinity with the organization, the result being lower absenteeism in my survey I find that the major cause of absenteeism in reliance infocomm is festival carnal 40% in my survey come to a major conclusion that in festivals seasons employees taken more leaves another major cause of absenteeism is family reasons the worker may take leave due to some family/ personal reasons this may include of illness of wife/ children/ other family member. a. Construction of building etc b. Guests c. Parents meeting or call of father in children school d. Marriage, Death of family members

Since any one of this may come in an individual life at any time the employees takes leaves to help their family member during illness, death, marriage etc the employees also takes leaves at their children school. The problem of absenteeism is more when the employees have big family since they have to take care of a large sector of member, they take leave for arrangement & for purchasing of

goods The other major important reason for absenteeism is illness.the employees may fall ill due to various reason & accordingly tooks leave to take some rest. But in my opinion I come to conclude that even though the workers are medically fit they take extra leave to take some rest from routine job by showing that they are ill & are unable to work on that particular day the worker may fall ill due to. a. Change of seasons b. Bad working condition c. No balance diet d. Food poising e. Wine, alcohol f. Genetic, inheridittery dieses

In the survey we also found that the next major reason for absenteeism in private undertaking inboard from routine and repetitive nature of job. The employee may feel bore of their routine job & takes leave for the freshness of their mind the employees some time want some new job to do & when they can not get it for a fairly long period of time they take leave for enjoyment for e.g. in RELIANCE INFOCOMM We noticed that many employees feel bored of their job because they have been doing the some job for a long period time. the other

important reason for absenteeism is reprimands from boss. We also found that the organization have already improved the working condition for it employee for e.g. the RELIANCE INFOCOMM give various types of facility to its employee such as : light facility, photo state machine ,air conditioners & phone. But even though the bad working condition (which might include non-conducive climate for work) is yet another factor of absenteeism.

Non-availability of transport and other reasons are also responsible for high rate of absenteeism in modern day enterprise the management of both the organization has taken step to solve & reduce the rate of labour turnover and absenteeism. The management of both the private and government sector companies has provided a lot of facility to its workers. In reliance the management of the companies has adopted new managerial technique to make and healthy relationship between management and workers. Some important features of absenteeism are as follows:

a. The rate of absenteeism is the lowest on pay day; it increase considerable on the days following the payment of wages & bonus.

b. The younger employees are not regular & punctual or old employee are most irregular.

c. The rate of absenteeism is varies from department to department in reliance, the distribution of reliance mobile bills takes more leave then officials pins etc.

d. The percentage of absenteeism is high in during festival seasons & during the seasons of roping.

Hence, we can conclude that the major reasons for absenteeism is :-

1. Festivals 2. Countable working condition 3. Unfavorable mental attitudes arising out of boredom, resentment against supervisions

4. Social exigencies 5. Family reasons etc. Absenteeism is a serious problem for a management. Because it involves heavy additional expanses. The management should take necessary steps to deal with the problem of absenteeism. The government undertaking should take immediate steps to reduce this problem of absenteeism. The government undertaking must introduce some incentives to reduce this problem & to encourage the workers to come to their work place regularly this problem also in private undertaking this problem is not creating much problem for the management but to reduce the cost of the various factor of production in is necessary for the both private & government undertaking to take steps to solve this problem of absenteeism.

A high rate of labour turnover is bad both for the worker and the industry. Hence effort should be made to reduce it

The heavy rate of labour turnover is great handicap for workers and industry a like, for it implies and reduction in skill & efficiency an the part of the workers & reduced output for the industry low ever some amount of labour

turnover is inevitable & even natural particularly when it stems from the retirement of old employees and the accession of new blood. But both the management of government undertaking & private undertaking must take serious steps to solve this problem as soon as possible. Dealing effectively with absence or labour turnover call a continuous and co-ordinate effort by personnel managers, line managers, including first-line supervisors, and worker representatives.

High absence or labour turnover can often be a symptom of workers’ dissatisfaction with their jobs. Sound fair and consistent policies and procedures can provide a framework within which labour turnover and absence problems can be better handled.

RECOMMENDATIONS Absenteeism is a serious problem for a management because it involves heavy additional express resaves & understudies are kept in readiness to take the place of absenteeism, fairly which the overlade cost of idle equipment les to be faced. Industrial employees do not usually also for absence in advance or even give notice during their absence as to low long they would be away the management is generally incretion about the probable

duration of on employees absence cannot take appropriate measure to feel.

It should be noted no single measure can be effective in controlling absenteeism; but a skilfull combination of various measures would definitely lead to the desired result there resources are as follows

1. Proper working condition in the factory, so that worker can devote their full effort & energy for achieving the production gasket assigned to them by the management

2. Adequate wage as that worker may be satisfied & will be able to full fill their daily needs & they will not go to search for another wags of earning money this will help him to concentrate more on a particular more & thus they will be able to do the job more effectively & efficiently.

3. Protection from accident & sickness. This enable the workers to feel season from this factor & they can utilize their fall energy for the well being of the organization .

4. Facilities for obtaining leave for rest by this the management will be able to known in advance low many workers would take leave on a particular day or date this enable the management to engage extra manpower force on that particular date so that the production to get for that day many be achieved.

5. The personal management should encourage notification, especially in cases of sickness when the duration of absences is likely to be long.

6. In case of personal & family e.g. illness of children in case of married woman employees which make absences unavoidable, leave should be granted liberally.

7. To reduce unavoidable absence due to side ness & industrial accident, program of industrial hygiene & safety should be strengthened.

8. Regularity in attendance can be encouraged to some extent by the offer of a bonus & other pecuniary inducement

9. Adaptation of a well defined recruitment procedures

10. The selectmen of employees on the basis of communal linguistic & family consideration should be discouraged or avoided the management should look for aptitude & ability in the prospective employees and should not easily yield to pressure on personal likes & dislikes.

11. Job security for workers.

12. Motivation of worker; workforce & social measures. The management should recognized the needs of the workers and offer them adequate & cheap lousing facility, or subsidized food, free medical aid and transportation facilities to & from their residence, free educational facility to their children’s & other monetary & non- monetary benefits.

13. Their genuine difficulties like their need of money at the time of the marriage, death & family illness should be recognizes by the management and it should try to help them in this regard. As for social

security measure such as the provisions of provident find, e.s.i facilities gratuity & passion, all this needs to be improved, so that workers may have a same of belonging. 14. Liberal grants or leave. 15. Improved common & prompt redressed of consciences.

16. Cordial & health relationship between the senior & junior, b/w the management & the work ness. Reforms Modifying labor laws to enhance flexibility in labor markets was envisaged as part of the economic reform program that commenced in 1991. However, the lack of consensus and political instability at the center has delayed the passage of industrial relations reforms. A handful of changes have been initiated in recent years. For instance, as part of the restructuring of unprofitable public-sector enterprises, a voluntary retirement scheme (assisted by the National Renewal Fund) was instituted by the government to reduce their workforce. This, in turn, triggered similar programs in the private sector. In 2002, the government decided to amend the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 (summarized in the next section), allowing companies to lay off employees without seeking

its permission, if they employ less than 1,000 workers. This change is likely to impact 95 percent of Indian enterprises, provide employers with greater freedom in their labor decisions and improve labor market flexibility Xi. The Manufacturing Sector In India, employment in manufacturing grew at an average annual rate of 1.83 percent over the 1972–1992 period, while real wages grew at an average annual rate of 1.12 percent. This is in stark contrast to East Asian countries where the corresponding figures are 6.4 percent and 5.3 percent. In the last two decades, the registered manufacturing sector has witnessed an investment boom; growth in fixed investment increased from 9 percent per year in the 1980s to 15 percent per year in the 1990s. Most of this investment was domestically financed, with realized inward FDI only about $9 billion since the reforms (Nagaraj, 2002). As a result of this investment boom, employment growth in registered manufacturing, improved in the 1990s, accelerating to approximately 3.7 percent. However, there seems to be no association between growth in earnings and employment across industries. In 13 of the 28 industries the share of wages fell by more than 10 percent after structural reforms were undertaken. In only two industry groups (paper and other nonmetallic mineral products) did the share of wages rise. Comparing 1998 to 1993, we see that for most industry groups the share of wages was stagnant and even in cases where they did rise (e.g., other manufactured products),

they never recovered to pre-reform levels. Next, simple tests performed on real wage per employee reveal that there is no evidence for a significant acceleration in the growth rate of real wage per employee. Labor market regulations seem to have created certain rigidities in the Indian labor markets, especially in the organized sector. Therefore, I conclude here by suggesting some possible labor market reforms that could, could in principle, overcome some of the existing rigidities. There should be a match between labor laws that are legislated and the ability of the state to enforce them. For example, the Minimum Wage Act for the unorganized sector has been totally beyond the capacity for implementation. Partnership rather than antagonism between labor and management should be encouraged through an incentive system. For example, the bonus system provides a linkage between wages and profitability: it creates an incentive for labor to help increase productivity while at the same time providing flexibility to the management when profitability declines. While flexibility in the hiring and firing of workers is desirable, the costs of such decisions should not be disproportionately borne by workers. These costs can be mitigated through social insurance schemes that give basic minimum protection to all those in need of assistance. Rather than relying solely on the state, provision of such social services can be opened to private institutions and non-governmental organizations as well.

In the public sector, uniform norms of labor use for all enterprises do not allow individual enterprises to seek efficiency in their use of labor and other inputs. These enterprises can operate in a market environment only if their management has greater control over their own commercial activities. Labor market flexibility can be improved by educating the labor force, encouraging vocational training, and providing them with retraining facilities. These can also improve worker productivity by adding to human capital. The absence of safety nets may make total reform of the labor market extremely difficult, as social costs associated with restructuring (and the accompanying job losses) may be substantial and therefore politically unsustainable. However, such adverse consequences may only be short-term in nature — as the economy goes through a period of structural adjustment, and as labor acquires new skills and moves from contracting to expanding sectors (where India has a comparative advantage), it is likely to be better off in the long run. Much of the empirical research on turnover is based on actual turnover, although some studies are based on intentions to quit. Apart from the practical difficulty in conducting turnover research among people who have left an organisation, some researchers suggest that there is a strong link between intentions to quit and actual turnover. Mobley et al (1979) noted that the relationship between intentions and turnover is consistent and generally

stronger than the satisfaction-turnover relationship, although it still accounted for less than a quarter of the variability in turnover. Much of the research on perceived opportunities has been found to be associated with intentions to leave but not actual turnover (Kirschenbaum & Mano-Negrin, 1999). One of the possible reasons is that intentions do not account for impulsive behaviour and also that turnover intentions are not necessarily followed through to lead to actual turnover. It is particularly important to understand that bundles of policies are responsible for good outcomes. Simply put, the following seem to be particularly important in explaining why some European countries have done well: A high degree of wage flexibility, often in the context of strong trade unions and high coverage of collective bargaining, where the coordination and centralisation of negotiations ensure that wages respond to changes at the macro level and sustain non-infl ationary growth. Open markets with a relatively low level of product market regulation “Moderately strict” employment protection legislation that legitimises change but does not act as an impediment to necessary restructuring. Signifi cant investment in Active Labour Market programmes (ALMPs) to improve the

skills of the unemployed to help them back into work. An “activation” approach to the benefi ts system so that high benefi ts are married with tight conditions, limited durations and job search obligations. A high level of “functional fl exibility” at enterprise level where workers have a wide range of generic skills so that they can be redeployed from one activity to another. Low turnover indicates that none of the above is true: employees are satisfied, healthy and safe, and their performance is satisfactory to the employer. However, the predictors of low turnover may sometimes differ than those of high turnover. Aside from the forementioned career opportunities, salary, corporate culture, management's recognition, and a comfortable workplace seem to impact employees' decision to stay with their employer

Labour mkt flexibility and Social Insurance Policy in India Program name and the time of launch Specific objective and remarks 1. Rural Works Program (RWP)(1970.71) An employment-oriented program to create permanent civil works (soil conservation, road construction, afforestation, and so on); to mitigate scarcity conditions; and to promote integrated development in drought-affected areas. 2. Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CSRE)(1971) To take up projects of durable nature such as minor irrigation, soil conservation,

afforestation, land reclamation, anti-water-logging to alleviate unemployment and underemployment in rural areas. 3. Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA)(1971) and Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Scheme (MFALS)(1971) To make credit available to farmers of various capacity and agricultural laborers to enable them to use the latest technology, practice intensive agriculture, multiple cropping, and to take up subsidiary activities such as dairying, poultry, fishing, and horticulture. MFALS emphasized employment generation and improvement of examining capacity of landless agricultural laborers. In 1974 the two were merged into an expanded SFDA, which in turn was merged with IRDP in 1980. 4. Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS)(1972.73) To provide gainful, productive, unskilled, manual, adult employment at a minimum living wage in rural areas through labor-intensive and durable-assets producing activities. A unique state-level scheme that tried to offer work to everyone and give practical expression to the .right to work.. 5. Agro-Service Centres (ASS)(early 1970s) To provide assistance for self-employment to the unemployed graduates and diploma holders by enabling them to set up workshops, and repairing and hiring facilities. 6. Drought-Prone Area Program (DPAP)(1973) 7. Command Area Development Program(CADP) (1974.75) 8. Hill Areas Development Program (HADP)(1974). 9. Desert Development Program (DDP)(1977.78)

All of these are Area Development Programs (ADPs); DPAP was a redesigned RWP. Their aims: to deploy adequate infrastructure, to bring about integrated area development, to increase productivity and employment opportunities, to control the process of desertification, to mitigate the effects of drought, to restore ecological balance to raise productivity of land, water, livestock, and human resources in respective types of areas, to diversify agriculture, and to promote afforestation and pasture development. 10. Food for Work Program (FFWP)(1977) To generate additional gainful employment in rural areas to create durable community assets, to strengthen social and rural infrastructure, and to raise living standards. The wages were paid not in cash but in the form of foodgrains. from Government surplus stocks. 11. Training for Rural Youth in Self-Employment (TRYSEM)(1979) To provide technical skills and to upgrade traditional skills of rural youth (18 to 35 years old and from families living below the poverty line), and to enable them to take up self-employment in agriculture, industry, and services in rural areas. 12. National Rural Employment Program (NREP)(1980) This is a restructured and renamed RWP. To provide gainful wage employment during periods of seasonal and sporadic unemployment, to assist liberated bonded labor, to secure minimum wages to agricultural workers, to play a supportive role in IRDP and ADPs, to create community assets, and to

strengthen rural infrastructure. (Table continues on the following page.) Labor Market and Social Insurance Policy in India 14 13. Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)(1976.80) To promote self-employment and to raise the level of living of the poorest families in rural areas above the poverty line on a lasting basis by giving them incomegeneration assets and access to credit as well as other inputs. Toward this end, the program aimed at achieving integration of sectoral programs, spatial dimensions, social and economic process and policies. 14. Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)(1982.83) A supportive program for IRDP. To increase the income of rural women and to provide them with child care facilities and other support services and financial assistance so that they could take up selfemployment in viable economic activities, individually or in homogeneously organized groups. 15. Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP)(1983) A program to supplement NREP. It aimed at guaranteeing employment to at least one member of landless households up to 100 days in a year, with a focus on women. Wage employment program in which a part of the wages was paid in the form of subsidized foodgrains. 16. Self-Employment Scheme for Educated Unemployed Youth (SEEUY)(1983.84) To provide self-employment to the educated

unemployed youth in the age group of 18.35 years with a minimum qualification up to matriculation in industry, services and business. 17. Self-Employment Program for Urban Poor(SEPUP) (1986.87) To encourage families living below the poverty line in metropolitan, urban, semiurban areas to undertake selfemployment by providing subsidy and credit. The share of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) beneficiaries was to be 30 percent in terms of number and amount. 18. Jawahar Rozgar Yojna (JRY)(1989) A program launched by merging NREP and RLEGP; it has very similar objectives. It aimed at covering all villages, panchayats, and to create nearly 1 billion work days of employment per year, 30 percent of which is reserved for women. 19. Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY)(1989) with three components, namely: the Scheme for Urban Micro Enterprises (SUME); the Scheme of Urban Wage Employment (SUWE); and the Scheme for Housing and Shelter Upgradation (SHASU) While JRY is for rural areas, NRY is for training and upgrading the technical and commercial skills of urban underemployed and unemployed youth, providing infrastructure support, and promoting selfemployment, with a focus or reservation for women and SC/ST youth. SUWE aims at providing wage employment to the urban poor through the creation of

productive assets in the low-income neighborhoods in towns with a population below one lakh, at minimum wages for unskilled workers and at market wages for the skilled workers. SHASU aims at skills such as the upgrading of masons, carpenters, plumbers, sanitary workers, and so on; and at providing common infrastructure facilities to beneficiaries and machinery and equipment to training institutions, in towns with populations of 1 to 20 lakhs. Special Employment Programs For promoting employment and alleviating poverty in rural areas, the Indian government has initiated various special programs. These are employment generation programs, an employment assurance scheme, selfemployment programs, programs to help the poor to acquire productive assets, and programs to give training to the unemployed. Table 8 gives a list of these programs and their specific objectives. The most important step in the field of health security for workers was taken in 1948 when the Employees. State Insurance (ESI) Act was passed. The ESI Act provides for health care and cash payment in cases of sickness, maternity, and employment injury. The Act was based on a scheme prepared by Adarkar in 1944, applicable to all factories employing 20 or more wage-earning individuals. Workers

whose wages are below a particular ceiling (Rupees 3,000/- only) are eligible to participate in the scheme. The ESI Scheme (ESIS) is administered by a statutory body called the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), which has members representing employers, employees, the central government, state governments, the medical profession, and Parliament. The Union Minister for Labour is Chairman of the ESIC. A Standing Committee constituted from among the members of the Corporation acts as the executive body for administration of the scheme and is chaired by the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Labour. There is a provision for setting up regional boards and local committees at the grass roots level. The ESI scheme is mainly financed by contributions from employees and employers. The employers. contribution is equal to 4 percent of the wage payable to the employee. The employees. contribution is 1.5 percent of wages. The state governments. share of the expenditure on medical care is up to 12.5 percent of other contributions. The corporation has prescribed a ceiling on the sharable expenditure on medical care. In order to improve medical care under ESIS, expenditure on medical care has been enhanced from Rs. 345 to 410 per insured person with effect from April 1, 1994. All capital expenditure on construction of the ESI

buildings, including maintenance, is borne by the corporation. The surpluses of the corporation, which amounted to Rs. 2,683 crores in March 1996, are invested in the special deposit account of the Government of India and are credited with an interest rate of 12 percent. Despite extensive provision for health security, the ESIS has failed to reach its goals. Among the shortcomings of the ESIS are the following: (a) The scheme is applicable only to employees whose income (including dearness allowance) is lower than a prescribed ceiling.which is currently Rs. 3,000. With the high rate of inflation, many workers lose coverage under this scheme. (b) The ESIS leaves out, even within the organized sector, all establishments falling outside the factory. Consequently it does not provide health security to the large number of workers engaged in the informal sector. (c) The quality of services offered by the ESIS is abysmally poor. This is evident from the low occupancy rates of its hospital. Negligence on the part of the doctors, lack of safety in hospital buildings, and lack of essential equipment are the most common complaints . (d) There is a dichotomy of responsibility between the state government and the ESIC, which has caused the quality of services to decline, leading to dissatisfaction on the part of the insured person. The

ESIS, despite being a scheme that is geared exclusively to the industrial workers and their families, totally ignores occupational health. (e) Sickness benefit provided under the scheme has been the subject of considerable fraud. The compensation claim on the basis of fake medical certificates are rampant. (f) The ESIC review committee observed in 1982 that while most of the claims for temporary disablement were settled promptly, those relating to the more crucial permanent disablement and dependence funds were kept open for a long time. Outside the organized sector, the provision of health services by the government is largely through the public health system financed from public revenues. In principle, public hospitals provide free or low-cost medical care to all. But in practice most hospitals are concentrated in urban areas and the quality of service provided is extremely poor. On the whole, India spends 6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health services, which is high by international standards. But key health indicators remain low when compared to some other Asian countries such as Sri Lanka and China. A comparison of India and China would perhaps reveal dramatically the poor performance of India. Life expectancy in India is 59 years compared with the Chinese figure of 69 years. Infant modality rate in India is 79 per 1,000 live births in comparison with China.s 31. Sanitation and

drinking water facilities are much poorer in India as compared with not only China but also many ot many developing countries. The bottom line of the Indian experience with regard to labor market policies and social insurance is that despite a plethora of legislation, the economy has been able to achieve neither efficiency nor equity. Indian industries. lack of competitiveness has been evident for some time. Even after the reforms of 1991, their export performance remains poor. There was a period of rapid export growth during 1993.95, but recent trends suggest that performance in this regard has deteriorated drastically. It is revealing that total Indian exports (in fact, that of all of South Asia) are lower than that of Thailand alone. The competitiveness of an economy depends, apart from labor costs, on a large number of factors such as quality control, financial infrastructure, legal infrastructure, trade and communication facilities, and so on. However, labor costs are a crucial element in competitiveness and the weakness of the Indian economy in this respect is clearly indicated by table 10. As shown in the table, compared with Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, India has higher wages and lower productivity of labor in manufacturing