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MODULE 11

Industrial Law
Case Study 11 Western Ceramic Pvt. Ltd
INDEX NO : PQHRM-28-10
2/6/2010

Question A 1. No payments are made in respect of any work done in excess of the extra hours of work done on a normal day. The raised issue should be more specific in order to understand whether it is raised on fair grounds. Under the shop and office act people in sales for an instance cant be specified with a number of hours that he/she should perform work daily. Usually when it comes to a sales team the contract of employment will specify the starting time of employment and the number of hours the person should perform their duties and responsibilities. When it comes to sales personality the duties in his/her job may involve a considerable amount of travelling where an exact number of fruitful hours cannot be calculated. Apart from the above fact the time it takes to approach a customer and close the deal is varied. In that case such an argument in respect to a sales personality cannot be justified. If person in the sales team is working extensively despite his/her health condition the management can discuss the issue with the person stating the adverse effects the action may cause on him. It is less likely that the union is raising the fact due to extensive work of an employee on his or her will. In contrast for the non executive staff the number of working hours that should a worker perform, in his her job is specified. According to the law it is 45hours per week and 8 hours daily, additional work should be paid overtime. The management is strictly bound to adhere to the specifications. If the management has breached the law by requesting additional hours of work by employees and not paying overtime to the additional number of hours it should be taken in to consideration. If the employees side complains the matter to the commissioner of labor the decision will be given in favor of the employees because the law is breached according to the shop and office ordinance. 2. Some employees have been placed on no pay even they had leave to their credit. In case of putting an employee on no pay when the person is having leave on credit is not accepted. However the reason for leave should be on fair grounds. The management could anytime check the reason for taking leave but at an situation the management cant put the person on no pay when there is leave to their credit. If it is not a health situation approving of leave should be done before taking the leave. Still putting the person on no pay when there is
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leave to his credited is not the legal, in such a situation the management could do is to conduct a disciplinary inquiry and take an appropriate disciplinary action according to the result from the inquiry. 3. No additional payments are made respect of working mercantile holiday and poya days According to the law making a person employed in a poya day entitles the person for a 1.5 times the daily payment. If it is a mercantile holiday employee should be paid two times the daily wage. However the employer should obtain the consent of the commissioner of labor before making the person employed on a poya holiday or a mercantile holiday. At approval the employer agrees to pay accordingly to the employment of the holiday. If not paid accordingly employees side can directly complain to the commissioner of labor. When a complaint is made the commissioner of labor will order the employer to make the entitled payment after a formal inquiry. In case of breach of such a law employer may be warned or fined. 4. Some employees have been deprived of the increments and the other general facilities since the office bears of the trade union. This is a highly unethical action. According to the trade union ordinance employee has the right to join a trade union at his or her wish. The employer has done two faults in this case first is the employer has refused to accept the labor union as a representative of the employees. Any trade union which has the more than 40% of the organizations employees should be accepted by the employee. Secondly the management has deprived increments and general facilities of the workers because they are simply members of the existing trade union. Increments are a management decision since the management can stop increments at any instance but in this case the decision to stop increments is made due to workers are attached to a particular trade union. The commissioner of labor could induce a fine on the organization due to breach of law according to the trade union ordinance. Any employee in an organization should be provided with a minimum of general facilities. As an example female employees should be provided appropriate sanitary facilities in the organization and first aid facilities should be provided. It is a breach of the contract if an employer is reluctant to provide those minimum general facilities. An employer failing to provide appropriate facilities could be directly complaint to the

commissioner of labor by the grieved employee or the labor union. In such situation the employer may be induced with a fine and to provide the facilities. 5. No contribution has been made for the EPF and ETF in respect of the casual and temporary employees. Any casual of temporary employee is entitled to ETF and EPF. Casual employee is a person who is employed for a job which is not arising regularly. For an instance a window cleaner performs responsibilities of a casual worker. The job is not to be performed daily. All casual employees are entitled for all statutory benefits like permanent employees such as leave, EPF, and ETF. Temporary employee is a person who is employed for a given time period. A temporary employee is a person who performs responsibilities of a permanent employee for a short period of time. In this matter the temporary employee is entitled to all the benefits which permanent employee gets for the time period he/she is employed. Failure to fund the funds without valid reasons will result on penalty charges on the employer. 6. No separate sanitary facilities provided to female employees. This action too is against the law. All the employees in the organization are entitled for basic facilities. Health and safety in the organization is a much spoken nowadays. Any organization should have to maintain at least the minimum specified requirements from the law. Female employees are expected to be provided separate sanitary facilities in the appropriate number. 7. Many employees have left the organization and when they were paid gratuity payment, all recoveries on account of festival advance, payments in lieu of notice were deducted from the gratuity. It is not according to the law. Only damages and losses to the organization by misappropriation of the employee to the organization could be claimed. 8. Two female employees were terminated when they asked maternity leave. According to the statutory provisions for women and young people any woman who is pregnant should be provided maternity leave two weeks before the confinement. The employee herself is responsible for informing the management of the leave requirement beforehand. In this case two
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women have been terminated due to the reason that they requested for maternity leave. This action is highly discriminating. It is highly against the law. A termination could be performed only when an employee breaches one or more term of the contract of employment, it also should be on fair grounds, which the employee is bound to reason out. The grieved employees could seek the assistance of the labor tribunal. 9. No compensation was made for three injured employees whilst on duty and the management informed the trade union that, there is no provision to make compensation. If an employee is injured during he or she performing duties of his or her job the management is entitled to pay compensation only when there is a partial or full permanent disability. If not the management is not bound to pay compensation. In this case it is not very clear the degree of the disability. However the employee still could complain the commissioner of labor even in a case where the disability is temporary, requesting a safer work environment and safe work processes if applicable. For an instance lets say that a person got injured due to unsafe machinery. In such scenario the employee could put the incident for the consideration of the commissioner of labor. The commissioner will call a formal inquiry. If the employer is found guilty he/she will be asked to correct it. A surcharge may apply according to commissioners will.

Question B At first place it is well evident that the Western Ceramic Pvt. Ltd lacks proper management practices. Management seems to take decisions in a decorous manner. Since the organization is a family owned business the management may be thinking that the entire organization including the employees, are a private property. Most of the raised issued by the Trade union are due to the faults of the organization. Prior to thinking of obtaining the market share this organization should look in to restructuring the organization and things get moving. First of all a proper analysis throughout the organization should be performed. Since the main issue seem to lie on lack of knowledge of labor laws, all layers of employees should be interviewed and gather information. It may help to know where and when things have gone wrong and the causes of the problems. In the other had by raising an initiative hand certain problems can be solved within and through the employees. Secondly the obtained feedback should be taken in to expert consideration. The areas for improvement could be closely identified. The lack of technical skills of the management seems to be a huge problem. It is well evident from the raised issues by the trade union. The management seems have to no idea of the law. They seem to be breaching the law almost everywhere. In order to correct the situation the management should be given a proper understanding of the current labor laws and the reasons for their existence. It is advisory to recruit a person to handle all the legal matters, at least for a short period of time. So that the management can have how things are operated. At the same time it is advisory to direct the middle and low level management to participate seminars and training on law. So that they could be collectively participate in decision making. The organizations trade union is not accepted by the employer at all. But considering the issues raised by the trade union, it is well evident that the organizations trade union is the sound of the employees and it does a fair amount of work to improve the work life of employees and to enforce labor laws in the organization. In the other hand immerge of the trade union seem to be due to management activities itself. Anyhow the existing trade union seems to perform a

productive bit of work. The management should be made understood how the trade union can be made a strategic partner. Also the existing workforce also should be taken in to consideration in the action plan. With the poor work environment and work ethics it seems that the existing workforce still remain in the organization not because of their faith towards the organization but because they have no other option. To this reason even though the organization is restructured the employees are less likely to have faith towards the management. An attitude change of the employees should be done. In order to do this seminars and training activities can be performed. After going through the above process we can consider of obtaining the lost market share. With the new implementations the employees are likely to perform their duties productively. Many of the issues are expected to be solved with the restructuring the organization. If there is a need the employees could be directed to proper training programs in order to increase their work related technical skills.

References
Academic Learning Support (Division of Teaching and Learning Services), 2007, Havard Referencing Guide, Central Queensland University course resources online. Blicq, R & Morreto, L 2005, Technically Write 6th edn, Pearson Education Inc. Dessler, G 2008, Human Resource Management 11th edn, Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersey. Newstorm, J.W 2007, Organizational Behavior 12th edn, Hill Companies Inc, New York.

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