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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION

Labour is considered to be the most important resource of a nation as they

create all wealth from natural resources and is the backbone for the development
of the nation. Utilization of any resource largely depends on the efforts and the
quality of the labour resources of the nation. Labour force of any nation is
substantial in its size and has an inevitable role in the development of the nation.
Even in developed nations that depend on automated machines, labours are
indispensable as they need to operate the machines and equipments. Also, human
only has the capability of holding responsibilities and innovating new
methodology in order to increase the efficiency of the process and enable a nation
to get industrially development. The development of production and ancillary
industries contribute to the growth of the economy of a nation. Labour has an
important role to play in the development of an economy and critically important
in the developing economies like India.

Labour acquired dignity and status as of other professions in the societies

of the developed nations. However, in India, labour still require to get the status.
To acquire a status in the society, the labours require a good health, wealth, and
peaceful living which can be attained only through empowering the labour. This
makes labour welfare studies an important one in our nation. Labour activities are
undertaken by the Government as well as by the non Government agencies within
and outside the company. Labour welfare activities are aimed at the improvement
of the living conditions of labour. Developed countries like United Kingdom and
United States (“United”, n.d) have passed many laws for labour welfare such as the
Acts related with the Apprentices; Master and Servant; Employer and Workmen;
Railway Labour; Family and Medical Leave; and the like. Government of India has
also passed many laws for labour welfare like the Factories Act 1948; the Plantation
Labour Act 1951; the Mines Act 1952; etc. These legislations stipulate the public
and private sector organizations to follow several norms regarding working
conditions, sanitary facilities, safety measures, leave regulations, and the like. Apart
from the statutory welfare facilities compelled by the Government, the companies,
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on its own interest, may also provide many welfare facilities to the labours, known
as non-statutory welfare facilities.

1.2 CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS OF LABOUR WELFARE

Welfare has a two aspect, positive and negative. Negative (Bhooshan, 2008)
welfare is the provision by the State or other institutions of a “safety net” or the
distribution of benefits according to some criteria and positive welfare is the
provision of opportunities for people to help themselves.

1.2.1 Concepts

The concept of welfare need to be understood in three perspectives as total

concept, social concept, and relative concept. The total concept of welfare believes
that the structure of welfare constitute physical, mental, moral and emotional well
being. The social concept deals welfare in three-dimensions that includes welfare
of the family, communities, and the labour man himself. The relative concept
argues that welfare is relative in time and space. However, it is to be agreed that
the ideas of welfare as well as the content of welfare differ from country to
country. The Royal commission (1931) on labour describes welfare as a term
which needs to be elastic, according to social customs, stage of industrial
development and status of education of the worker. The report of the national
commission on labour (1969) also observed that “the concept of welfare is
necessarily dynamic, bearing a different interpretation from country to country and
time to time, and even in same country, according to the value system, social
institutions, degrees of industrialization and general level of social and economic
development”.

1.2.2 Definitions

The encyclopedia of Social Science (1935) has defined labour welfare work
as “the voluntary efforts of the employers to establish, within the existing
industrial system, working and sometimes living and cultural conditions of the
employees beyond what is required by law, the custom of the country and the
conditions of the market”.
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1.2.3 Operating Definition

The term labour welfare practices in this research mean all activities of the
organization relating to statutory and non statutory welfare measures;
compensation and fringe benefits; and recognition and empowerment of labour
that enable a labour to have a dignified life in the total environment, economic and
social.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In global level, India (“Labour”, n.d) possesses the second labour force (487
million) in the world. The Indian labour force may be divided in to two groups
namely organized (27.5 million) and unorganized labour (459.5 million). Most of
the labour comes under the unorganized category because of the domination of the
agricultural, forestry and fishing sector, those sectors that that contribute 12% of
the GDP of India. In addition, the manufacturing industry also employs a huge lot
of labour force through unorganized means. Notably, in 2012, textile industry that
has 27% share in foreign exchange earnings and 14% in total industrial production
employs more than 35 million people to occupy a sole proportion of 3% of GDP.
(“Textile industry”, n.d). The textiles sector stands as far as the size of labour force
is concerned in India.

Tamil Nadu has always been one of India’s chief industrial growth centers.
In Tamil Nadu textile sector make 50 lakh employment opportunities through direct
and indirect way. Textile companies operated in Tamil Nadu are grouped into
Coimbatore, Madurai, and Virudhunagar region. Tiruppur textile industry comes
under the Virudhunagar region. Tiruppur District one of the most important district
in Tamil Nadu that effects a sizable contribution to the economy of Tamil Nadu
through the agricultural and textiles, as most of the people involve the agricultural
and spinning works. The textile sector contributes 76.47% to the economy of
Tiruppur District from around 50 spinning mills running in the District. Thus,
spinning mills have a potential for large scope for wealth creation and it generates
more employment opportunity.

Considering the importance of spinning mills, for the betterment of rural

India, sincere attempt has made to find out the link between labour welfare
measures and industrial relations. This underlines the necessity of searching
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studies so as to identify the nature and extent of the problems of labour welfare
practices in the spinning mills, and to suggest measures for coping with the
difference. A modest attempt has been made here to analyze the labour welfare
practices in spinning mills in Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu.

The study analyzes various aspects of labour welfare practices such as

personal details, work details, wage details, statutory, non statutory, management
and labour relationship, fringe benefits, union activities, absenteeism and human
resources activities. The study discusses with the peculiarities of the labour
relation management situation and suggests ways and means for the improvement
of the industry. With this view, the analysis has done of labour welfare practices
on spinning mills.
After reading through several earlier theses on the topic, the researcher
came to know that the labour welfare measures play a vital role in the effectiveness
of the organization. Every organization is expected to provide the necessary
welfare measures to the workers. As mentioned above, organization’s growth and
development depends on its employees’ performance and it can be improved if
they are satisfied with their job. Otherwise it leads to low productivity, labour
turnover, absenteeism, and strike. Therefore the researcher has chosen the topic
“A study on labour welfare practices in private spinning mills in Tiruppur District,
Tamil Nadu.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study is undertaken by the researcher with the following objective

relating to the private spinning mills in Tiruppur District.

1. To understand the level of existence of statutory labour welfare practices.

2. To assess the level of existence of the non statutory labour welfare

practices.
3. To assess the level of existence of the fringe benefits for labours.

4. To understand the level of satisfaction of labour on wage,

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5. To assess the relationship among labour and management, and

6. To study the role of trade union in educating the labours towards

regulations and the rights.

1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.5.1 Research Design
The study aimed at portraying the present situation prevailing in the
spinning mills of Tiruppur District with regard to the efforts taken by the employers
in implementing the labour welfare measures and the satisfaction of employees on
labour welfare measures, thus adopted Descriptive research design.
1.5.2 Sampling Design
Labour welfare measures of a mill may be understood by interviewing the
labours, managers, and administrators of various mills situated in the geographical
area of the research. However, it is decided to interview only the labours, as it is
believed that the other members, middle and top level managers, may give an
answer which may be favourable to the organization.
1.5.3 Population
The population of the study includes the labour working in a spinning mills
situated in Tiruppur District either as a permanent, temporary, or contract labour.
Total number of labours may be around 20000 and exact detail of the labour force
is not available as there are three different categories of employee’s namely
permanent, temporary and contract labour and no organization keep proper record
for the temporary and contract labours.
1.5.4 Sample Unit
Any labour working in any mill in a relatively consistent manner is
considered to be the sample unit for the study. Contract labours have not been
included in the study as they work for the labour contractor and not for any single
mill. They will be working in different mills in different days.

1.5.5 Sampling Procedure and Sample Size

The researcher estimated the size of the population as more than 20,000
from the discussions with the trade union leaders/members whereas only there
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were around 6500 entries in the records available with the inspector of factories
and the regular attendance registers available in the mills. So exact details on the
total number of labour or proportion of labour categories are not known. Thus the
researcher adopted Non-probability sampling. The researcher wishes to include
samples from all spinning mills in the district and decides to approach labours
using disproportionate quota sampling. The geographical area under study has a
total of 50 spinning mills. The researcher decides to collect 10 samples each from
each spinning mill which amounts to 500 samples. A total of 500 labours were
approached with help of trade union leaders and middle level managers of spinning
mills. The researcher could get only 375 responses in which only 350 were valid
and usable.
1.5.6 Data Collection Instrument

More than hundred reviews were read relating to the present research and
many variables were extracted from the reviews. The variables were arranged
suitably for the interview scheduled after dividing it into nine parts for the data
collection purpose. The first part has personal details that include sex, age group,
community, marital status etc. Second part is related to the details of work related
covering nature of the employment, total experience, total number of labours, etc.
Third part deals with wage related details that contains total wage, annual
increment, annual bonus, etc. Fourth part deals with satisfaction level on the
presence of statutory and non statutory welfare measures

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The present study is confined to private spinning mills and analyses its
achievements in the field of labour welfare practices. In the study the researcher
has identified the specific key areas of labour welfare practices, to know their
impact on private spinning mills. The question sub title, employees personal
details, work details, wage details, statutory, non statutory, management and
labourers relationship, fringe benefit, union activities, absenteeism and human
resource activities.

1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

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The study is conducted only in Tiruppur District and the results may not be
applicable for other districts. The result may not be generalized to all industries
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as the study focused on spinning mills. The study results may not true even for
Tiruppur District if any new spinning technology is adopted and the functioning of
spinning mills changed. As the human behaviors always change, the results may not
be same when studied in future or in any other environment.

1.8 CHAPTER SCHEME

The first chapter, Introduction and design of the study provides a brief idea
on labour welfare, research issue, the objectives of the study, research
methodology, statistical tools, profile of the study area and chapter scheme. The
second chapter includes reviews in detail from the studies of the labour welfare
practices, and issues there on in India and abroad. The third chapter explores the
Historical background of the labour welfare, spinning mills, and the conceptual
theory and frame work of the labour welfare. The fourth chapter discusses the
status of labour welfare in the spinning mills in Tiruppur District on different fronts
using percentage analysis, t-test, weighted average, factor analysis, one way
ANOVA, regression and Chi-Square. The fifth chapter presents the findings,
conclusion, suggestion and Scope for future research.