Labour welfare is an important fact of Industrial relations. These give satisfaction to the worker and ensure that proper remuneration is achieved. With the growth of Industrialization, Mechanization, and Computerization, labour welfare measures have got a fillip. The workers in the Industries cannot cope up with the pace of modem life with minimum sustenance amenities. The workers are in need of added stimulus to keep body and mind together. Labour welfare, though it has been provided to contribute to efficiency in production, is expensive. Each employer provides welfare measures of varying degrees of importance for the Labour force. The social and economic aspects of the life of the workers have a direct influence on the social and economic development of the nation. There is an imperative need to take extra care of the workers to provide both statutory and non-statutory facilities to them. The welfare facilities help to motivate and retain employees. Most of the welfare facilities are matters of sanitation and hygienic which is not provided dissatisfaction among workers are motivated by providing welfare measures. This ensures employee satisfaction results in increased efficiency.
Employee welfare measures may help to minimize social evils like alcoholism, gambling, drug addiction, etc. The workers are likely to fall victim because of discontentment or frustration. The welfare facilities induce the workers happy, cheerful, and confident with commitment.
The welfare measures and schemes form an integral part of Personnel and HR Management in any organization will go a long way in ensuring the desired goals. In turn, this will enhance the productivity of the organization. The welfare measures are designed and systematized by the organization through statutory bodies like trade unions.
The labour departments of the government insist upon minimum amenities to be implemented in any organization. This will ensure those minimum standards that are required for an employee to carry out the duties and perform functions to the extent of satisfaction. An industrial relations system is made up of certain institutions, which are popularly known as the “three factors” of the system. In all developed and developing economies, these actors are workers…. (employees) and their organization (trade unions), management (employers) and their organizations (employer’s associations/federations), the Government. These actors jointly determine the output of the system, which largely consists of rules/regulations relating to terms and conditions of employment.
Labour Welfare Measure:
Employee attitudes are important to human resource management because they affect organizational behaviour. In particular, an attitude relating to job satisfaction and organizational commitment is of major interest to the field of organizational behaviour and the practice of human resource management. Job satisfaction focuses on employee’s attitudes toward their jobs and organizational commitment focuses on their attitudes toward the overall organization.
Labour Welfare and Social Security:
Social security is one of the pillars on which the structure of a welfare state rests, and it constitutes the hardcore of social policy in most countries. It is through social security measures that the state attempts to maintain every citizen at a certain prescribed level below which no one is allowed to fall. It is the security that society furnishes through appropriate organization, against certain risks to which its members are exposed (ILO, 1942). The social security system comprises health and unemployment insurance, family allowances, provident funds, pensions and gratuity schemes, and widows and survivors allowances. The essential characteristics of social insurance schemes include their compulsory and contributory nature; the members must first subscribe to a fund from which benefits could be drawn later. On the other hand, social assistance is a method according to which benefits are given to the needy persons, fulfilling the prescribed conditions, by the government out of its own resources.
Labour welfare activities in India with particular emphasis on the unorganized sector. Although provisions for workmen’s compensation in case of industrial accidents and maternity benefits for the women workforce had existed for a long, a major breakthrough in the field of social security came only after independence. The Constitution of India (Article 41) laid down that the State shall make effective provision for securing the right to public assistance in case of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of underserved want. The Government took several steps in compliance with the constitutional requirements. The Workmen’s Compensation Act (1926) was suitably revised and social insurance programs were developed for industrial workers. Provident funds and gratuity schemes were introduced in most industries, and maternity legislation was overhauled. Subsequently, State governments instituted their own social assistance programmes. The provisions for old age comprise of pension, provident fund, and gratuity schemes. All three provisions are different forms of retirement benefits. Gratuity is a lump sum payment made to a worker or to his/her heirs by the company on termination of his/her service due to retirement, invalidity, retrenchment, or death (Vajpayee and Sankar, 1950).
The concept of labour welfare is flexible and elastic and differs widely with time, region, industry, social values and customs, degree of industrialization, the general socio-economic development of the people, and the political ideologies prevailing at a particular time. It is also molded according to the age groups, socio-cultural background, marital and economic status, and educational level of the workers in various industries.
In its broad connotation, the term welfare refers to a state of living of an individual or group in a desirable relationship with the total environment — ecological, economic, and social. Conceptually as well as operationally, labour welfare is a part of social welfare which, in turn, is closely linked to the concept and the role of the State. The concept of social welfare, in its narrow contours, has been equated with economic welfare. As these goals are not always be realized by individuals through their efforts alone, the government came into the picture and gradually began to take over the responsibility for the free and full development of the human personality of its population.
Labour welfare is an extension of the term Welfare and its application to labour. During the industrialization process, the stress on labour productivity increased; and brought about changes in the thinking on labour welfare.
For Citing this article use:
- Agthar Begum, S. (2010) ‘A study on labour welfare measures and social security in IT industries with referenct to Chennai’. http://hdl.handle.net/10603/54304
