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Oh, for a government job!
Written By murali772 - 23 May, 2012
Bangalore governance Corruption Media Reports Economy Public Sector efficiency outsourcing labour laws productivity
The government has instituted very strict labour laws. But, unable to comply with them, even as they remain the biggest employers in the country, government organisations are openly flouting the laws, as comes out clearly in each of the following cases:
1) C & D employees (for the full report, click here):
The Karnataka government banned the system of daily-wage workers in 2007. But dig a little deeper, and its own departments have over 15,000 daily-wage employees who are paid a paltry Rs 168.70 paise per day. Shockingly, many such employees in various government departments haven’t got their salaries for months now.
H Hanumanth Raju, 54, working as a cook in a hostel run by the social welfare department at Gauribidanur, has been waiting for his salary for seven months. He is one among the many staging a fast-untodeath from Monday at Banappa Park, near Hudson Circle.
The protesters include those working in the forest department, Vidhana Soudha press, municipalities, social welfare and irrigation departments as group C and D employees. All the employees were hired after August 1984.
“In 2009, when we staged a similar protest, minister S Suresh Kumar had promised us the issue would be settled. A cabinet sub-committee was formed to look into the issue under minister C M Udasi. The cabinet report had suggested that the government frame guidelines for regularization of daily wage employees,” said Chandrashekar S Hiremath, a labour leader from Gulbarga, who has been fighting for the cause for the past six years.
Forest guards:
“I know the forest I guard near Shikaripur is now facing threat from various land sharks, because many like me have not attended work today. We work 24 hours a day, guarding the forest from fires and encroachment. But the salary I get is a pittance. It’s high time the government recognizes our work and regularizes our jobs,” said Bhima Naika, who has been forest guard for 22 years.
In Bangalore alone, there are 1,000 daily-wage employees in the forest department alone. “The protest will continue until the cabinet regularizes the employment of all the 15,000 employees,” Hiremath said.
2) Pourakarmikas (for the full report, click here):
Around 18,000 pourakarmikas work for BBMP, of whom only 4,000 are under employee category. The remaining workers have been hired on contract basis for the past few years.
3) Bus crew/ staff (for the full report, click here):
Members of the Akhila Karnataka Rajya Raste Sarige Nowkarara Mahamandala stated that all the four state transport corporations were employing nearly 33,000 employees as trainees on a stipend between Rs 2,000-Rs 5,000 per month. “This is close to 1/3rd of the total workforce. They are made to do regular work, are fined like regular employees and after a training period of 2 years have to undergo probation for 2 more years,” said K S Sharma, president of the federation. He pointed out that the total salary received by the lowest rank in the corporations was 9,000 per month for a class ‘D’ attender.
And, while there is no authority that can question any of them, the organised private sector does not enjoy such privileges, leading to the country failing totally in labour-intensive industries, even as it is doing dramatically well in brain-intensive areas, from software and high-end outsourcing to pharmaceuticals and automobiles, with many multinationals building R&D centres to harness Indian brainpower. The bigger irony here is that, even as the country is hard put to cope up with the huge demand for brain-intensive manpower, its huge un/ semi - skilled manpower, which could otherwise have been put to good use for the benefit of all concerned, is unable to be utilised because of the strict laws. But, all the same, the government continues to keep its head buried under the sand, ostrich-like, just refusing to make the necessary amendments to the labour laws.
A few days back, I saw a documentary titled "Rat Race" on NRK's (Night Rat Killers) of Mumbai. In 1994, when plague broke out in parts of the city (the city of Surat was worst affected), the Municipality chose to engage unemployed young men, as NRK's, to exterminate rats, they being the carriers of the plague virus. They were paid a monthly wage in the range of Rs 6,000/-, for killing a minimum of 30 rats per night, whose carcasses they had to hand in at a collection centre. Now, one would wonder why any youth would want to take up such a job (which all them were uniformly hesitant to talk about), considering the fact that getting a job, for like or higher wage, in a economic bee-hive like Mumbai, is not at all difficult. The answer to that paradox becomes fairly clear when each of the NRK's talks about his aspirations of getting a confirmed job in the Municipality (government job). And, since the route to this, if at all there was one, was plain patronage and never merit, the NRK's were prepared to do anything to please their supervisor, in the hope that he would make 'suitable' recommendations. The supervisor used this mind-set of the NRK's to lead them on, even as he very well knew that the chance of any of them getting confirmed was next to nil.
And, this is exactly the kind of mind-set that even an otherwise honest minister, like Mr Suresh Kumar, is willy-nilly exploiting.
So, what's so great about a government job? The answer is very simple - once you get confirmed, there is no force on earth that can make you work, if you don't want to, nor throw you out from employment (given the stringent labour laws, it's difficult even for the private sector; but, you can expect them to find their way out when things go beyond their tolerance limit). Besides, you then become part of the privileged 'labour aristocracy', providing you an opportunity of getting enrolled at some level into the various mafia operations, that all government organisations are invariably steeped in, therewith making huge non-taxable incomes on the side. There are of course the odd sincere people who refuse to succumb to these temptations, but, somewhere along they become victims of the demotivating environment, and just bide their time, looking for salvation in some other pursuits.
The reason why senior Air-India pilots, who can perhaps walk into any of the private airlines given their experience, would instead choose to arm-twist their management into accepting the demands, whether rational or not, is also because of this. From past experience, they know fully well that the government will eventually throw in the towel, for all the initial posturings by the likes of an Ajit Singh. On the other hand, the muted protests of the Kingfisher pilots, whenever it happens, hardly lasts a few hours.
Such a scenario has led to the breeding of a culture of its own, over the past 50 odd years of the public sector dominance of the commanding heights of the country's economy, symbolised by abysmal levels of productivity and quality, from which the country has been hard put to unshackle itself.
All in all, the answer very plainly seems to be for the government to get out of manufacturing and providing of services, and concentrate instead on the bigger job of facilitating, regulating, and, where essential, controlling, since, when it becomes a player in addition, it causes to distort the entire game. Simultaneously, the government needs to revamp the labour laws, and down-size itself too, outsourcing all non-core functions (check this). Once these happen, the job market will open up, productivity and quality will improve by leaps and bounds, and the country will become an economic power house no other country can match.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
how can you prevent political interference?
murali772 - 19 March, 2014 - 12:22
In the first action of its kind, Air India sacked about 10 air hostesses last week for reporting late for work, delaying flights. AI decided to crack the whip after witnessing an unusual rise in instances of cabin crew sauntering in when they want, keeping passengers waiting for hours. More crew members could lose their jobs in the coming days, warned a senior official. - - - - On February 20, AI issued a general notice warning crew that if they do not reach airports in time to operate flights on time, the airline will take penal action, including terminating their services. "Many of the AI employees flaunt their political connections and rarely obey orders to work properly. This time also, they ignored the notice," said a source.
For the full text of the report in the ToI, click here.
Invariably, the political connections will ensure that they are all back (and, to their wayward ways) soon as the heat dies down. An RTI query, some three months down the line, should establish that.
Likewise, another ToI report (full text accessible here) reads as below:
The BMTC on Monday sacked the driver accused of pushing a 23-year-old girl student out of a moving bus in the early hours of Friday. AV Siddartha was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident.
Another report, again in ToI (full text here), on the same reads as below:
The first mistake was letting AV Siddartha, who is facing a department inquiry for an assault charge, drive a bus with women passengers at night.
Obviously, he too had used his political/ union connections to continue in service even as the inquiry was on. And, after the heat dies down, I expect he too will be back at the BMTC wheels, and very much upto to his bad old ways.
And, if anyone thought you could prevent political interference, I'll say please perish the thought straightaway.
murali772 - 28 March, 2014 - 04:42
BMTC driver Krishna is not the only frustrated driver among the over 20,000 employees on probation. John D'Souza, member of the United Employees Union (UEU) of BMTC and KSRTC told TOI some drivers have been on probation for 12 years.
But BMTC MD Anjum Parvez said there were 3000 probationers in BMTC. The probation period was brought down from four years to two years by unions during the tripartite agreement with the government after the massive strike in September 2012.
"The management keeps exploiting probationary drivers who're made to work full-time and paid a meagre Rs 7,000 as stipend. Most often, an employee gets less than this due to deductions of fines levied against him. It's wrong to make mistakes but then they're not intentional. As a penalty, the management would extend the probation period by 6 months to 12 months," D'Souza claimed. - - - Often, the probationary crew is deployed for extra trips during festivals and elections. The stipend is too small to make ends meet," D'Souza said.
For the full report in the ToI, click here.
At a workshop held recently, when I raised the issue of government using archaic policies like the Contract Carriage Act (check this), etc to thwart competition from private players, a senior BMTC official intervened to say that the private players never observe labour laws and engage only contract workers. That the government operators equally guilty of the charge is seen here (as also at sl no 3 in the opening post). As such, that can't be an excuse for retaining government monopoly in this sector. Effective and healthy competition from private players is the need of the hour in this key infrastructure sector, where the demand is huge and the government operators are by themselves not equipped to meet it. For more on that, click here.
And as for welfare of the workers, it is best served by Labour law reforms as suggested here. Today, the situation is that you are made to work like a slave before confirmation, and once confirmed, you join the union mafia and become a slave driver.
how will any work ever get done?
murali772 - 26 March, 2014 - 08:13
The state government seems to be ignoring its own orders on the suspension of officials accused of corruption. In the last four months, 10 officials were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes, but none of them has been suspended.
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here.
So, forget sacking, government servants are immune from suspension even. Will any work ever get done this way?
If any right has to be bestowed on any one, the very first has to be the "right to sack" (check this) on the employer (including the government).
murali772 - 5 July, 2014 - 11:59
Sumana, a 38-year-old BA graduate, was one among the thousands who came to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) office on Thursday to collect an application for the post of a pourakarmika.
It is not because of dearth of jobs in the private sector that Sumana hopes to become a pourakarmika. It is for the job security that comes with the profession.
“Private companies hire people on contract. The chance of losing one’s job is high. I wanted a government job and, if it means sweeping roads and collecting waste from houses, I don’t mind it,” she said. If everything goes well, she hopes to eventually get a promotion and become an officer.
After almost two decades, BBMP issued a notification for recruitment of 4,000 pourakarmikas earlier this year. Raju, another applicant, is 27 years old and works at a private bank. “At the bank, I work as a coordinator on contract basis. My salary is just `6,500 a month. A pourakarmika’s job is after all a government job and a secure one. My life will be settled,” he told Express.
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here.
Well, if there are post graduates ready to take up the job of a "Night Rat Killer" (see my opening post), why should it be surprising that there are the likes coveting the 'poura-karmika' job? The whole rationale too is explained in the opening post.
Government and PSU jobs, in essence, just screw up the work culture of the country - the lesser the number, the better for the country. In this regard, NaMo's slogan "less government, more governance" is undoubtedly the right approach.
As such, rather than employing poura-karmika's directly, the Karnataka government would do well to enforce strict compliance, by the contractors, with the terms & conditions of engagement of labour. In fact, these terms may even be made more liberal, and made applicable for not just poura-karmika work, but to almost all low skill work.
Like I have stated before too, the government has a responsibility not just to a handful of its "labour aristocracy", but to the entire working population, and it's best achieved through removing all artificialities that government jobs create.
no way for service organisations to function
murali772 - 14 March, 2014 - 14:30
The busy Platform Road was abuzz with activity on Thursday morning. Commuters were wondering what the fuss was all about till they realized it was no film shoot that choked the one-way stretch. A traffic constable and a KSRTC bus driver were locked in a duel, and a real one at that.
The scuffle broke out after the cop objected to the driver entering the one-way road. Alleging that their colleague was attacked for no mistake of his, 10 KSRTC drivers staged a protest by stopping their vehicles in the middle of the road. This brought traffic to a standstill in Majestic, Okalipuram, Goodshed Road, Ananda Rao Circle and KG Road.
- - - It all begun when KSRTC driver Prasanna Kumar allegedly entered the one-way road around 10.30am. To ease traffic, police have restricted KSRTC buses from entering Platform Road during peak hours. "Despite repeated requests, Kumar, who had come from Arakalgud in Hassan, entered the one-way street. When I opposed, he abused me," traffic constable Hussain Basha said.
For the full report in the ToI, click here
Here is another clear instance where the driver should have been summarily sacked for challenging the traffic police's instructions. Instead, the policeman will now have to defend the assault case, filed against him, using KSRTC union clout. And, the union clout essentially devolves out of KSRTC's government ownership. How can a service organisation function this way? And, how can police function this way?
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