Strikes have resulted in loss of production and loss of life in different parts of the country. The main sticking problem has been workers’ right to form a union, rather than any demand for better wages or working conditions. Managements see unions as troublemakers who would disrupt the functioning of the enterprise and reduce profitability. This attitude is against India’s interests, both in terms of economic growth and political and social development.

Unions work to enhance workers’ entitlements, through collective bargaining which can take an agitational form if negotiations fail. Workers’ entitlements broadly fall into three categories: wages, agency at the workplace and leisure. All these help the economy, and help industry grow bigger and its profits, fatter.
How can higher wages for workers increase their employers’ profits? The paradox is only apparent. The trade-off between the two is real at the level of the individual enterprise and disappears at the level of the economy as a whole. The reason is simple: the mass market.
The mass market has been the biggest driver of economic progress in the world. When the consumer base for any good is limited, there is only so much of income that anyone can generate from producing it. But once it is demanded by the majority of the population, the volume of production, revenue and profits shoots up.
Any enterprise’s workers are a cost for that enterprise. But for the rest of the economy, they are potential consumers and the higher their purchasing power, the larger the sales. For any single enterprise, the incentive would be to depress the expenditure on wages and salaries. But for the economy as a whole, the higher the wages and salaries paid out by all enterprises, the bigger the demand for industry’s collective output of goods and services, the greater the volume of business and the greater, also, aggregate profits.
How can an enterprise take the decision in the enlightened self-interest of all enterprises together to increase its own wage bill? It won’t. After all, there is no guarantee that its munificence would be emulated by other employers, so that the market for its own produce would also expand. Two things can force a decision that improves the collective good. One, regulation: the law could mandate minimum wages, for example. Two, unions. Unions would force individual enterprises to pay higher wages and salaries, boosting aggregate demand in the economy.
The unions can also reduce the working day, so that workers can have greater leisure. Leisure, of course, is also a business opportunity. Publication of books, newspapers and journals, music, movies, television programming, sports, gaming, tourism, eating out, even long gossip sessions over the phone — a whole lot of economic activity depends on people having leisure along with purchasing power.
Unions also can help raise productivity. The simple reality is that today’s sophisticated manufacturing calls for very high levels of quality, that cannot be achieved by mindless automations who work only because of compulsion. When work becomes actualisation of the worker’s creativity, his output would be of the kind required for a product or a service to be truly globally competitive.
Here, there is clearly a question of ambition. Does Indian industry want to be global leaders, and so aim for the requisite levels of quality, or are they happy to stay somewhere at the bottom of the foodchain, making do with ill-paid, ill-trained, insecure workers and the quality they are capable of producing? Most sophisticated manufacturing takes place in workplaces with unions, whether in Japan, Korea, or Europe. China, too, has unions, of course, but they are toothless puppets that cannot challenge the authority of the state or the party.
Japanese companies revolutionised quality, by giving workers unprecedented levels of agency at the workplace. It is possible, in India, too, to involve unions in transforming the work culture and raising quality and productivity to create global companies.
Of course, for all this to happen, it is not just employers who have to change their mindset. So must the unions. Our unions are, for the most part, conditioned to see managements as opponents, the present system of production as something that needs to be overthrown, rather than improved. Their members are active drivers of the mass market, but they are steeped in the mythology that workers are paid nothing more than subsistence. They must understand that broadbased capitalist growth, far from being rotten and ready to crumble, is vigorous, flexible and capable of creating sufficient new income to banish subsistence poverty. And they must engage with the task of making it work in a way that benefits the majority.
Unions play a big role in strengthening democracy and modernising society, combating retrograde tendencies. Divisions based on caste, religion, region, language, and ethnicity hold back India’s growth. Unions can overcome these divisions within them. Instead of leaving the job of organising the disempowered rural poor to the Maoists, political parties and their unions and mass organisations can take on the task.

Yes, Agency, company or the contractor, whosoever, had paid the employer’s part of the portion, which is 4.75% of the contributions, may seek for its refund, as erroneously paid. The 1.75% can be claimed, only by the each affected worker, which will be cumbersome.

In one of the judgements Anil Textile Industry vs Employees’ State Insurance Corporation on 8/8/1990, Rajisthan High Court has held that contributions paid to ESIC are in the nature of Tax. Also that

Article 265 of the Constitution of India mandates that no tax shall be
levied or collected except by authority of law.

Section 72, of Indian Contract Act runs as under :

“72. Liability of person to whom money is paid, or thing delivered, by
mistake or under coercion.–Person to whom money has been paid, or anything delivered, by mistake or under coercion, must repay or return it.

Thus, what-so-ever some one pays erroneously, can be asked to be refunded for. In our case the Instruction of corporation clearly mandates for non-covering of construction workers and hence contribution was actually not payable.

The above question has been answered to detail by an ESIC instruction 4/99 reproduced below:

References have been received from Regional Directors seeking clarification regarding coverage of construction agencies/offices of builders particularly on the point as to whether the construction workers working in the construction sites are to be taken into consideration for the purpose of the coverage of the construction agencies/offices of builders under Section 1(5) of the ESI Act as a ‘shop’.

The matter was examined at Hqrs. Office and it is informed that it has been the policy of the ESI Corporation not to cover the workers engaged by the construction agency who belong to the unorganized sector due to the peculiar characteristics of the construction industry and the peculiar nature of employment of workers engaged in it. In construction industry the work is carried out through the construction workers at the construction sites where the projects are situated. The workers engaged in it are mobile and migratory in nature. The criteria and duration of employment also vary from the work to work. Due to the nature of employment and the nature of work place involving the construction workers, enforcement of the ESI Act in respect of such workers and organizing Medical and other facilities for them which are normally available under the ESI scheme will be difficult. Therefore the existing scheme under the ESI Act is neither applicable nor workers engaged in construction sites. Hence, the following actions may please be taken for coverage of construction agency/offices of the Builders:-
Such construction agencies which are employing 20 or more persons in their offices and the offices are situated in implemented areas are coverable under the Scheme. However, it may be ensured that the criterion of 20 or more persons is applicable to such employees only who are coverable under Section 2(9) of the ESI Act.
Such workers who are engaged by construction agencies and are working on the site of the project should not be considered for the purpose of coverage of an establishment dealing with construction activities.
Such construction workers are to be taken into consideration for coverage under Section 2(9) as ‘employee’ who are engaged directly in a covered factory by the principal employer or through an immediate employer.
Only employees of the construction agencies who are posted in the office are to be taken into consideration for the coverage of the unit.
Some of the regular employees of the construction agencies mostly technical staff such as Engineers, Supervisors etc. who are regular employees of the construction agency but are normally sent to the work-site periodically, are to be taken into account for the purpose of coverage of the establishment under Section 1(5).
In respect of those employees who are though regular employees of the construction Agency but remain on tour at the Site(s) of the construction in non-implemented areas for a period of more than 7 months in a year, contribution may not be charged subject to the employer seeking exemption under Section 88 of the ESI Act in respect of those employees.

Bloom’s Taxonomy model is in three parts, or ‘overlapping domains’. Again, Bloom used rather academic language, but the meanings are simple to understand:
Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or ‘think’)
Affective domain (feelings, emotions and behaviour, ie., attitude, or ‘feel’)
Psychomotor domain (manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or ‘do’)

This has given rise to the obvious short-hand variations on the theme which summarise the three domains; for example, Skills-Knowledge-Attitude, KAS, Do-Think-Feel, etc.

Various people have since built on Bloom’s work, notably in the third domain, the ‘psychomotor’ or skills, which Bloom originally identified in a broad sense, but which he never fully detailed. This was apparently because Bloom and his colleagues felt that the academic environment held insufficient expertise to analyse and create a suitable reliable structure for the physical ability ‘Psychomotor’ domain. While this might seem strange, such caution is not uncommon among expert and highly specialised academics - they strive for accuracy as well as innovation. In Bloom’s case it is as well that he left a few gaps for others to complete the detail; the model seems to have benefited from having several different contributors fill in the detail over the years, such as Anderson, Krathwhol, Masia, Simpson, Harrow and Dave (these last three having each developed versions of the third ‘Psychomotor’ domain).

In each of the three domains Bloom’s Taxonomy is based on the premise that the categories are ordered in degree of difficulty. An important premise of Bloom’s Taxonomy is that each category (or ‘level’) must be mastered before progressing to the next. As such the categories within each domain are levels of learning development, and these levels increase in difficulty.

The simple matrix structure enables a checklist or template to be constructed for the design of learning programmes, training courses, lesson plans, etc. Effective learning - especially in organisations, where training is to be converted into organisational results - should arguably cover all the levels of each of the domains, where relevant to the situation and the learner.

The learner should benefit from development of knowledge and intellect (Cognitive Domain); attitude and beliefs (Affective Domain); and the ability to put physical and bodily skills into effect - to act (Psychomotor Domain).

Bloom’s Taxonomy model is in three parts, or ‘overlapping domains’. Again, Bloom used rather academic language, but the meanings are simple to understand:
Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or ‘think’)
Affective domain (feelings, emotions and behaviour, ie., attitude, or ‘feel’)
Psychomotor domain (manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or ‘do’)

This has given rise to the obvious short-hand variations on the theme which summarise the three domains; for example, Skills-Knowledge-Attitude, KAS, Do-Think-Feel, etc.

Various people have since built on Bloom’s work, notably in the third domain, the ‘psychomotor’ or skills, which Bloom originally identified in a broad sense, but which he never fully detailed. This was apparently because Bloom and his colleagues felt that the academic environment held insufficient expertise to analyse and create a suitable reliable structure for the physical ability ‘Psychomotor’ domain. While this might seem strange, such caution is not uncommon among expert and highly specialised academics - they strive for accuracy as well as innovation. In Bloom’s case it is as well that he left a few gaps for others to complete the detail; the model seems to have benefited from having several different contributors fill in the detail over the years, such as Anderson, Krathwhol, Masia, Simpson, Harrow and Dave (these last three having each developed versions of the third ‘Psychomotor’ domain).

In each of the three domains Bloom’s Taxonomy is based on the premise that the categories are ordered in degree of difficulty. An important premise of Bloom’s Taxonomy is that each category (or ‘level’) must be mastered before progressing to the next. As such the categories within each domain are levels of learning development, and these levels increase in difficulty.

The simple matrix structure enables a checklist or template to be constructed for the design of learning programmes, training courses, lesson plans, etc. Effective learning - especially in organisations, where training is to be converted into organisational results - should arguably cover all the levels of each of the domains, where relevant to the situation and the learner.

The learner should benefit from development of knowledge and intellect (Cognitive Domain); attitude and beliefs (Affective Domain); and the ability to put physical and bodily skills into effect - to act (Psychomotor Domain).

To this effect ESIC passed an instruction in 4/99 reproduced as below:
References have been received from Regional Directors seeking clarification regarding coverage of construction agencies/offices of builders particularly on the point as to whether the construction workers working in the construction sites are to be taken into consideration for the purpose of the coverage of the construction agencies/offices of builders under Section 1(5) of the ESI Act as a ‘shop’.

The matter was examined at Hqrs. Office and it is informed that it has been the policy of the ESI Corporation not to cover the workers engaged by the construction agency who belong to the unorganized sector due to the peculiar characteristics of the construction industry and the peculiar nature of employment of workers engaged in it. In construction industry the work is carried out through the construction workers at the construction sites where the projects are situated. The workers engaged in it are mobile and migratory in nature. The criteria and duration of employment also vary from the work to work. Due to the nature of employment and the nature of work place involving the construction workers, enforcement of the ESI Act in respect of such workers and organizing Medical and other facilities for them which are normally available under the ESI scheme will be difficult. Therefore the existing scheme under the ESI Act is neither applicable nor workers engaged in construction sites. Hence, the following actions may please be taken for coverage of construction agency/offices of the Builders:-
Such construction agencies which are employing 20 or more persons in their offices and the offices are situated in implemented areas are coverable under the Scheme. However, it may be ensured that the criterion of 20 or more persons is applicable to such employees only who are coverable under Section 2(9) of the ESI Act.
Such workers who are engaged by construction agencies and are working on the site of the project should not be considered for the purpose of coverage of an establishment dealing with construction activities.
Such construction workers are to be taken into consideration for coverage under Section 2(9) as ‘employee’ who are engaged directly in a covered factory by the principal employer or through an immediate employer.
Only employees of the construction agencies who are posted in the office are to be taken into consideration for the coverage of the unit.
Some of the regular employees of the construction agencies mostly technical staff such as Engineers, Supervisors etc. who are regular employees of the construction agency but are normally sent to the work-site periodically, are to be taken into account for the purpose of coverage of the establishment under Section 1(5).
In respect of those employees who are though regular employees of the construction Agency but remain on tour at the Site(s) of the construction in non-implemented areas for a period of more than 7 months in a year, contribution may not be charged subject to the employer seeking exemption under Section 88 of the ESI Act in respect of those employees.

Anamika

1. Obtain Joining Report as per format and send to concerned Unit
2. Company Printed Application Form and the Salary Annexure
Form to be filled, if not done earlier.
3. Reference Check.
4. Pre-Employment Medical Check-up.
5. Submission of signed copy of Appointment Letter and Secrecy Agreement.
6. Service Bond to be signed. If applicable.
A Joining Report addressed to the Corporate HR / Unit HR Department.

8. Submission of signed copy of Service Tenement Agreement(STA) with the company, in case of Company Accommodation.
9. Submission of attested photocopies of the following certificates, -if not submitted earlier:
• Qualifications.
• Experience / Service, if applicable.
• Statement of Last Salary drawn, if applicable.
• Birth Certificates.
• Relieving / settlement letter from previous Employer, if applicable.
10. Submission of two passport size photographs, one to be affixed to with the Company Application Form and the other for making of Identity Card.
11. Submission of details of family including children and dependent parents, if applicable.
12. Collection of Bank Opening Account Form duly signed and opening of an account in the concerned bank.
13. Collection of necessary forms for Provident Fund (For Transfer-
Form No.1 3, For Nomination - Form No. 2) / Gratuity / Superannuation, etc..
14. Submission of Form No. 16 from Previous Employer, if applicable. HR/AD M.
15. Submission of Requisition Form for Computer Login.
16. Submission of Requisition Form for Business Cards.
17. Allotment of Office Stationery.
18. Colfection of Form for Access Control Card.
19. Collection of Half- Yearly XXX Diary.
20. Issue copy of Employee Handbook.
21. Acquaint the new entrant with the Regulation background and history of the Organisation Structure, Rules & information.

22. Inclusion of Employee details in Attendance Recording (ARS) and PINS.
23. Issue of circular to all concerned regarding the new entrant and his/her assignment for tneir information

24. Include the name of the new entrant in the salary report being sent to Unit Payroll/Accounts for preparation of salary
25. Obtain from the new employee all agreements/declarations/under-takings as per the appointment
Co-ordination of all activities of the new entrant during induction phase.

1. Obtain Joining Report as per format and send to concerned Unit
2. Company Printed Application Form and the Salary Annexure
Form to be filled, if not done earlier.
3. Reference Check.
4. Pre-Employment Medical Check-up.
5. Submission of signed copy of Appointment Letter and Secrecy Agreement.
6. Service Bond to be signed. If applicable.
A Joining Report addressed to the Corporate HR / Unit HR Department.

8. Submission of signed copy of Service Tenement Agreement(STA) with the company, in case of Company Accommodation.
9. Submission of attested photocopies of the following certificates, -if not submitted earlier:
• Qualifications.
• Experience / Service, if applicable.
• Statement of Last Salary drawn, if applicable.
• Birth Certificates.
• Relieving / settlement letter from previous Employer, if applicable.
10. Submission of two passport size photographs, one to be affixed to with the Company Application Form and the other for making of Identity Card.
11. Submission of details of family including children and dependent parents, if applicable.
12. Collection of Bank Opening Account Form duly signed and opening of an account in the concerned bank.
13. Collection of necessary forms for Provident Fund (For Transfer-
Form No.1 3, For Nomination - Form No. 2) / Gratuity / Superannuation, etc..
14. Submission of Form No. 16 from Previous Employer, if applicable. HR/AD M.
15. Submission of Requisition Form for Computer Login.
16. Submission of Requisition Form for Business Cards.
17. Allotment of Office Stationery.
18. Colfection of Form for Access Control Card.
19. Collection of Half- Yearly XXX Diary.
20. Issue copy of Employee Handbook.
21. Acquaint the new entrant with the Regulation background and history of the Organisation Structure, Rules & information.

22. Inclusion of Employee details in Attendance Recording (ARS) and PINS.
23. Issue of circular to all concerned regarding the new entrant and his/her assignment for tneir information

24. Include the name of the new entrant in the salary report being sent to Unit Payroll/Accounts for preparation of salary
25. Obtain from the new employee all agreements/declarations/under-takings as per the appointment
Co-ordination of all activities of the new entrant during induction phase.

Jorawer Singh, Bathinda, September 5, 2009: It is not a miracle but sheer grit, passion and dedication to profession that these Doctors, after retiring from their cosy Government jobs, working at a construction site of HMEL, 40 Km away from the Bathinda main city, are handling difficult and critical medical emergencies. “It is all the with the grace of god and the support provided by the Hindustan Mittal Energy Limited that we are able to save the precious human li ves at this remote location” said Dr Prem Verma. Narrating an incident which happened early this month he said “Sona Haldar, 31, a job aspirant was standing in the queue for pre-employment medical examination, suddenly he fall on the ground and got unconscious, I was on duty and found that BP & Pulse was unrecordable, heartbeat was also not coming. I immediately started doing cardiac massage and also gave him mouth to mouth respiration and oxygen, after 2 minutes, his heartbeat started , then he was given emergency medicines; Injection Effcorlin, Injection Decadrom and IV Fluid within few minutes pulse become appeared and BP also recordable.” “By evening this daily-wager’s pulse was 70/ per minute and BP 102 / 68. After stabilizing, the patient he was referred to Charitable Hospital at Raman Mandi.” added Dr Prem with elation.

Another Senior citizen, Dr Sadhu Singh, is equally happy after saving a life this weak. A labourer working at site, Krishan Ram, 35, was brought to Occupational Health Centre with the history of severe diarrheoa & vomiting. Dr. Sadhu Singh along with Paramedical staff examined the patient; BP & Pulse was unrecordable, heartbeat was just feeble. Dr. Sadhu, immediately started the treatment “IV Fluid started instantly and emergency medicines were given to him”. After 15 minutes of intensive procedure, pulse & BP become recordable. After stabilizing the patient for half an hour, referred to Charitable Hospital at Raman.

The Corporate responsibility just does not end with this, “Our Occupational Health team was continuously in touch with Doctors at Charitable hospital. On 10.08.2009, he was discharged from the Hospital.”said relieved Mr Ravi Yadav, HR Head at Bathinda Refinery.

“We are happy to see our members gainfully employed and still serving the cause with pride and smile” said Sukhbir Kaur, President of DadaDadi.org, appreciating both HMEL for providing them employment.