The recent incident incidents at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant are highly deplorable. Anyone in the civilized society cannot justify such a heinous act, no matter what the provocations were.

India’s manufacturing competitiveness is critical to India’s growth and this can be accomplished only through the right partnership between labor and the management. I am happy that the need for such partnership has been realized by many evolved manufacturing companies in India. They have instituted many innovations which are the hallmark of shop floor practices such as self managed teams, total productivity maintenance, quality circle etc.

In India, wage correction has happened over the last few years for workers in the organized sector. Therefore, as India advances and its GDP per capita increases, wages will see an increase for workers in the organized sector. However, in the unorganized sector, there seems to a matter of concern.

Further, as long as contract laborers are hired for peripheral work and not for mainstream manufacturing, there is a clear understanding for how contract laborers are paid which is at par with their skill level. However, when contract laborers are increasingly hired for mainstream manufacturing, there is a likelihood of conflict arising from the same.

The need of the hour is for the labor pool and the management to focus on making Indian manufacturing globally competitive through continuous partnership for a more sustainable growth scenario.