QuestionDo you agree that the 1977 wage agreement was principally responsible for the strained industrial relations and low productivity acknowledged by the case study? Justify your answer.

AnswerThe 1977 wage agreement was not solely responsible for the low productivity and strained industrial relations at Pioneer industries limited rather it was another hole in an already sinking ship.

PILs problems started from 1948 when competitor companies revised wage structures while PIL remained unaffected by this turbulence in the market.PIL had one registered trade union that remained quiet during the industry turbulence however the Trade unions were riddled with internal conflict due to two factions arising for power the communist and the other right wing led by the BJP faction. However the Trade union united under the leadership of Ashok Kumar who studied the workers problems and put forth a report stating 7 general and 116 individual problems the workers at PIL faced.

Thus the first nail in PILs coffin that led to its low productivity and strained industrial relations was when the management influenced the government to back out of holding a special committee to address Trade union and worker problems leading to the longest strike ever witnessed of 58 days.

The second nail was the act of suspending Ashok Kumar, the leader of the workers, under false accusation of irregular attendance. This questionable act of victimization and interference caused the workers and staff to walk out as he was the one who had come up with the disturbing conclusions that PILs low wages had caused workers to be heavily indebted to their friends and money lenders leading to absenteeism wide spread resentment to wards the organization and lower productivity contributing to PILs low productivity and strained industrial relations.

The third nail that lead to PILs low productivity and strained industrial relations was when the government went back on their finalized draft agreement, promising several benefits to workers in November 1975 with the joint secretary of the concerned ministry, in the tripartite negotiations of January 1976. This led to the appointment of a new CMD who introduced a second shift system to augment productivity and a multi trade system to make better use of skilled manpower also new negotiations started for a new wage settlement system based on incentives rather than DA.

The final nail that led to PILs lost fortunes was the new 1977 wage agreement Though this new incentive system was very attractive to workers, as it offered them wages based on arrears and they felt they would get substantial arrears, they were cheated out of their salaries by the management as their pay slips that were submitted for salary evaluation showed most workers got no arrears and many cases recovery of money was needed.Thus PILs low prodctivity and strained industrial relations cannot to principally attributed to just the 1977 wage agreement but was rather a culmination of many factors namely- questionable and unfair labour practices by Management, victimization, interference and breach of conditions of recognition.