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Misfits in the Department

 




The Ministry of Human Resources had a number of Departments with specified functions. Of these Departments, the Labour Department, the Industrial Relations Department and the Trade Unions Department had officers known as Labour Officers on their payroll. They were interchangeable and had functions emphasising the nature of the Department. Of these the Labour Department is the oldest having its origins in the last century. The Trade Unions Department evolved from the late 1950’s when Trade Unions were set up to protect members. The Industrial Relations Department split from the Labour Department in 1967 with the introduction of the Industrial Relations Act 1967. As a result of this peculiar set up, there were officers who had spent their whole life enforcing laws in the Labour Department before being posted to the Industrial Relations Department or the Trade Unions Department on promotion to a higher grade. The nature of work of the officers in the three Departments were varied. 


The effect of officers who were promoted much later in life and posted to a different Department was that they would find that they had to learn the basics all over again, to function effectively in the new Department. Some were able to adapt fast but those who underwent these promotions nearer to their retirement, had a tough time adapting to their new surroundings. 


We had one officer who had been enforcing labour laws all his life, who found on promotion, that he was required to do conciliation work between unions and the employer. Since this was something new altogether, he found that it was altogether a different ballgame - and one which he had not been prepared for. He  was  confused and found it difficult to adjust to the new surroundings and was looking forward to his retirement. In the meanwhile there were complaints about him each time he initiated conciliation work adding to his frustration. He did not realise that in his new role he did not have the backing of the law to assist him and needed to depend on his persuasive powers to do conciliation work. 


Part of the problem was clearly the policies of the Department which failed to rotate officers between departments and promoted officers to unfamiliar territories (especially close to retirement).


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


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