Employee Welfare or Labour Welfare
Labour welfare refers to all those activities undertaken by employers to provide employees with facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries. Employee welfare is a broad term that encompasses various services, benefits, and amenities offered by employers to improve the well-being of workers. Through these provisions, often considered fringe benefits, employers enhance the quality of life for their workforce and create a supportive environment that extends beyond monetary compensation.
Welfare includes any initiative monetary or non-monetary taken to ensure the comfort, safety, and improvement of employees. These measures not only keep morale and motivation high but also help retain employees for longer periods. They may range from monitoring workplace conditions to providing healthcare, insurance against disease, accidents, unemployment, and ensuring overall industrial harmony for employees and their families.
Objectives of Labour Welfare
The primary objective of labour welfare is the holistic development of workers, enabling them to become a better, healthier, and more efficient workforce. Such measures contribute to improving their standard of living and making work life more satisfying. The key objectives include:
- To provide better health and quality of life for workers
- To ensure employee happiness and satisfaction
- To relieve industrial fatigue while improving intellectual, cultural, and material conditions of living
Features of Labour Welfare Measures
Labour welfare schemes exhibit several important characteristics:
- They include a variety of facilities and services aimed at improving health, efficiency, and the social status of workers.
- Welfare measures are supplementary to wages and other statutory benefits secured through legal provisions or collective bargaining.
- The schemes are flexible and evolve with changing needs, with new initiatives added over time.
- Welfare provisions may be introduced by employers, the government, employees' unions, or even social/charitable organizations.
- By offering welfare facilities, employers can maintain a stable workforce, as workers feel involved and committed to their jobs.
- They lead to higher productivity, improved industrial relations, and sustained industrial peace.
- Social evils, such as substance abuse and related issues among workers, are reduced through effective welfare policies.
Employee welfare is therefore not just an act of goodwill but a strategic necessity for organizational success. It fosters loyalty, reduces attrition, and builds a harmonious employer-employee relationship.
Trade Union
A trade union is a continuous association of employees formed with the purpose of securing a diverse range of benefits for its members. It is essentially an organized effort of wage earners aimed at maintaining and improving the conditions of their working lives. Trade unions evolved as a response to protect workers’ rights against management exploitation, ensuring fair wages, better working conditions, and social welfare. By raising a collective voice, these unions safeguard the economic, social, and political interests of workers while also fulfilling their need for identity and belongingness.
Classification of Trade Unions
Trade unions can be classified on two main bases: purpose and membership structure.
- On the basis of purpose:
- Reformist Unions – further classified into business unions and uplift unions
- Revolutionary Unions – further categorized into political, anarchist, and predatory unions
- Predatory unions take the form of either hold-up unions or guerrilla unions
- On the basis of membership structure:
- Craft Unions
- Industrial Unions
- General Unions
Trade Unions in India
Over the years, the power and influence of trade unions in India have weakened due to changes in the nature of the workforce, globalization, and privatization. Persistent challenges such as multiple unionism, inter-union rivalry, political interference, financial instability, and uneven organizational growth have also hindered their effectiveness.
In the current industrial environment, trade unions face concerns about declining importance. Their survival depends on their adaptability, willingness to reform, and ability to develop healthy relations with employers and the government by redefining their objectives, roles, and strategies.
Features of Trade Unions
- They can be associations of employers, employees, or independent workers, including:
- Employers’ associations (e.g., Employers’ Federation of India, Indian Paper Mill Association)
- General labour unions
- Friendly societies
- Unions of intellectual labour (e.g., All India Teachers Association)
- They are permanent organizations formed on a continuous basis, not temporary or casual in nature.
- They exist to protect and promote the economic, political, and social interests of members, with economic interests being the most dominant.
- They achieve their objectives through collective action, negotiations, and collective bargaining.
- Beyond economic concerns, trade unions today also work to elevate the overall status and dignity of workers as essential contributors to industry.
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