During Indian joblessness agony, while people are struggling, a host of troubles are arising for Indian employees, and here is why.
During this Indian joblessness agony, while people are struggling to make ends meet, a host of troubles are arising for Indian citizens. Perhaps the dearth of money, health, scarcity of products made everyone in the world want to slow down and hire less, still suffering the aftermath of the consequential fears of the virus more than the virus itself inflicting further destruction.
While the world is reeling with a definite blow and trying to make a comeback, one problem now is employers are cashing in on the situation to pay their workers very low wages. Citing COVID and other issues, payscales are dropping. Of course, the employers’ own standards of living are rising which actually shows that one sector of society is thriving.
There has been redundant dropping growth in manufacturing employment between 2011 and 2020 despite schemes like ‘Make in India’. Many big car manufacturers moved out of India too. Manufacturing as a share of GDP fell from 17% in 2016 to 15%, then 13% in 2020, while the ‘Make in India’ plan flopped miserably, so the lack of jobs in India is a hard reality that is being played at by company owners.
According to the departments of the central government as on 1 March 2021, nearly 10 lakh posts vacant under various ministries and departments of the central government led to the conclusion that while work could be there for the people, but even in the government, they don’t want to pay. This news is especially gloomy for citizens who are literally struggling to earn a decent amount of money.
There is stagnation in manufacturing output and employment and contraction of the labor-intensive segment of the formal manufacturing sector which is leading to the tremendous increase in joblessness of at least 10 million due to COVID-19, on top of the 30 million already unemployed in 2019.
There is extreme rigidity in the formal manufacturing labour market and rigid labour regulations that has built disincentives for employers to create new jobs.
Industrial Disputes Act has lowered employment in organized manufacturing by about 25% (World Bank Study) and this too has led to work force droppage.
Stringent employment protection legislation has pushed employers towards more capital-intensive modes of production than warranted by existing costs of labour relative to capital.
The nature of the trade regime in India is still biased towards capital-intensive manufacturing and with the capital sector booming, the other sectors fall down
How are employers taking advantage of this?
Due to lack of competition with the slowing of markets, and rise of capitalism, and no attempts made to create job avenue pathways, employers are taking advantage of this dilemma. They do this first by underpaying their workers miserably to the point that they would need to hold a number of jobs to survive and in each, they would be poorly paid.
At the end of the day, how many jobs can one human hold? Are people designed to work in a multitude of jobs? the present scenario is pushing people to work at insane levels. The ambience of work should be so satisfying and fulfilling, both in its nature, quality and pay package that the employees will pour out their best naturally.
In the present times where companies are not hiring quickly, employers are “skinning” their workers by underpaying them and forcing them to run helter and skelter, like a headless chicken sometimes. Dignity has not been added to their labour, unfortunately. Stating COVID as the main culprit, they do not want to commit a decent amount for their employee’s living capitalizing on a scenario where millions are jobless.
What is the Answer?
Healthy Competition
The answer is healthy competition. Without healthy competition in all the markets and fields, this kind of “exploitation” will continue. The change will only happen when corporate, media, trade, and marketing fields grow bountifully and dig their roots deep to build their own empires. In this field of flourishing contests and challengers, employers will be forced to value their employees and not take advantage of the COVID aftermath, which is a misnomer because they are not stricken by any financial maladies.
India Has to Evolve to a Higher Plateau
India still has to evolve to a higher plateau to enable the development of all sectors be it industrial, farming, science, health, media, writing, art, so that people can be paid fairly for their services and receive the fruit of their labor. The answer is given in the wrong system where we read that there are nearly 10 lakh posts vacant under various ministries and departments of the central government.
Pay More!
The government does not want to hire people and pay them and employers don’t want to pay workers. The root cause is they don’t want to pay and if they don’t, there is no growth and advancement because underpaid people cannot perform their best, everything is done in halves. It is a two-way street and if workers give their best, it will also flourish the company and the root.
“A worker or laborer is worthy of their hire or wages” and the people paying less will only be a backlash back to them by either losing good workers or coming up with harsh competition in the future with which they cannot compete with. The bottom line is fear of investing, and fear of paying more, fear – of a negative force, is leading to redundant growth.