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Cover Story: Guest Column
As I pen down my thoughts during this present crisis at Maruti Suzuki, consequent to the barbaric act of unprecedented industrial violence at our Manesar Plant, my mind is flooded with numerous questions, frustration and even despair, at what I witnessed as a human resources professional. But on top of everything, is the stress, pain and extreme feeling of sadness, of losing a colleague, a fellow professional and a good human being – Awanish, who was close to me and who worked with me with high commitment and to the best of his capability. Why was such a person and such a professional subjected to such heinous and gruesome brutality? Why were so many supervisors and managers beaten to pulp for no rhyme or reason? I wonder if it is part of the professional hazard in our human resources role. If it has been so, then what have we done about it over the years? I have also been reading various opinions and assessments from seniors in the HR and business fraternity, about recommended Employee Relations practices, employee engagement initiatives & professional management approach but one question which I am struggling with is, that if all remedial measures are implemented with utmost professional sincerity and it still fails, leading to such unprovoked industrial violence, then what next?
At Maruti Suzuki, the workers strike last year was instigated only to form a separate union for the Manesar plant and not to be part of the existing union. That rigid irritant too was solved by helping them through the process of formation and registration of a separate union by the company in February 2012. And many other positive initiatives as per their expectations were introduced since October 2011 with total focus on employee engagement and towards building positive employee relations. Communication and mutual personal touch with the union and workmen population in general was implemented with topmost priority. And still we have faced unprecedented violence leading to the tragic death of a capable and positive HR professional like Awanish and seriously injuring hundreds of supervisors & managers, including senior management personnel. Maruti Suzuki, as most of the incumbents say, is a dream company. Awanish too often said that “Maruti Suzuki is a dream job for me”. Then why such violent behavior by some and for what vested interests? Militant attitude or is it something else? Today one thing is for sure – I think I am facing one of the toughest challenges of my professional career spanning 33 years. But I am also determined to deal with it in the toughest but the ‘just way’.
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I gather that MSIL had taken sufficient initiatives to settle the various issues which came to their notice. As a technical professional I have a feeling that we generally come across honest feedback/feelings of dissatisfaction from our colleagues or staff, if any, during various informal discussions if they have trust on us. Timely satisfactory initiatives/feedback/counselling by concerned supervisor really helps in subsiding simmering issues going out of hand later. This is particularly a case where contract laborers, if deployed, start feeling over a period of time that they are doing work no less than regular employees and their pay/facilities need to be near to regular employees. But nevertheless such a labor violence has no justification whatsoever where Awanish Kumar Dev, GM(HR), MSIL lost his precious life and many others suffered at hands of militant workers within factory premises. However I am sure Mr. Siddiqui will be able to restore peace in the plant and bring normalcy in production levels soon. K.K.Gupta
No doubt Maruti has one of the best systems in Management practices. The said mishappening was unfortunate and a learning insight too. Quite often internal grudges are aggreivated by external interference. Management needs to be little proactive on such actions. If the worst situation like this, inspite of all good people pro initiatives, may happen then, perhaps, a fair dealing to crisis management practices needs to be strengthened.
Such incidents are indicative of few deep rooted issues in Labor Relations, still unsolved, and more than often fuelled by vested interests within and outside the organization. But nothing justifies the criminal behaviors and violence. Certainly various HR and behavioral experts are discussing about the probable cause of such incident I am at loss of thought on what can be the reason for such barbaric act! I had visited Maruti to discuss about the engagement initiatives some time ago and was so happy to learn the initiatives taken by HR people. With such best practices at workplace and a caring attitude of management, what caused this incident? Only thing that is worth questioning is why management was not able to gauze the mood at plant? As a strong believer of better tomorrow, I am sure that this incident will never be repeated.
While Mr. Siddiqui has raised pertinent questions from management perspective, he also needs to revisit and look at the workers perspective. I am sure the workers do not derive any pleasure in resorting to violence. My suggestion to Maruti management is put yourself in the shoes of workers and you will find solutions.
Excellent thought provoking article. Our thoughts remain with the family of Mr Ashwani Dev in these difficult moments. May God give them the strength to overcome this terrible loss. Mr. Siddiqui has asked the right questions, but unfortunately, no concrete answers are in sight. This is the moment of reckoning, not only for MSIL, but for entire manufacturing setup of India, especially North India. MSIL remains one of the largest employers in North India, and a tragedy of this magnitude will remain etched in all our memories for a long time. No doubt, this ghastly incident will have long term repercussions for everyone involved.
This gives me a feel that all the best practices were in place and still the violence occurred. Does this also mean that the root cause of the problem remains unidentified??
Excellent article. But am sure Maruti is going to stand up and be back to normal very soon!