Context :
Nojob cuts but profiles may change: Railways
/ 03 July 2020
Extract :
Ø The Railways on Friday said certain job
profiles of its employees might change in the coming days but asserted that there will be no job losses
Ø In an online briefing, Director
General (HR) Railway Board, Anand S Khati said the Railways will be " rightsizing and not downsizing
".
Ø He said the order (sent on Thursday) was to surrender
non-functional, non-safety vacant posts………..
Ø The Railways currently has 12,18,335 employees and spends 65 per cent of
its income on payment of salaries and pension.
Ø
Since 2018, the Railways has notified 72,274 vacancies in safety category and
68,366 in non safety category, taking the total number of vacancies notified to
1,40,640.
Ø The letter to the general managers, approved by the
Financial Commissioner, Railways said the freezing of new posts, review of posts created in
last two years and surrendering of 50 per cent of existing
vacancies was part of "an action plan for
economic measure and rationalisation of expenditure."
Ø The financial commissioner had also proposed a slew of
austerity measures
# freeze in the creation of new posts,
# rationalisation
of manpower at workshops,
# shifting
outsourced work to CSR,
# moving
ceremonial functions to digital platforms and
# cutting
down on use of stationary by 50 per cent.
Ø In the letter, the financial commissioner had also advised
the zones to control expenditure by reducing
staff cost, rationalising staff and also by making them perform multiple tasks.
=====================================================
The problem of overstaffing
in Public Sector Units, is nothing new. It has been there all along.
What is new (
for Public Sector and Private Sector as well ) is :
As a result of Covid lockdown, demands ( for goods as
well as services ) have plummeted
Profits have disappeared . Losses and “ Bank Loan
Defaults “, are mounting. Banks are unwilling to lend further. Fixed costs of
operations, remain the same
So ,
what is the “ Quick Fix ?
“
Ø Bring
down “ Variable Costs of Manpower “ by ,
# Early retirement / Voluntary retirement
# Recruitment Freeze / Not filling approved
vacancies
# More outsourcing
# More mechanization / automation /
digitization ( of office processes )
# More use of “ Temps “ and “ Contract Workers
“
# From Union Agreements, getting rid of rigid “
Job Descriptions “
# General Economy Drive
Will not all
these steps increase UNEMPLOYMENT ?
Ø In
short term YES, but in long term, by being more productive / competitive, these
companies will corner a larger share of the market and hire more people
Have these steps
helped Companies in the past to revive ?
Most certainly . Very emphatically .
For specific / real life
examples ( of the success of these steps ), read my following letters (
yes, cyclostyled / individual paper letters to each of 7,500 + employees of
L&T Powai Works, sent out 35 years ago ) :
RESURRECTION AT GENERAL MOTORS …………………..[19
Nov 1986 ]
PRODUCEPRODUCTIVITY OR PERISH …………………………………….[ 06 Dec 1985
]
NOTALONE ……………………………………………………………………[ 20 Aug 1986 ]
ECONOMY(CO-OPERATION) DRIVE ………………………….[
21 July 1986 ]
These days, TV / News papers carry daily
reports of big companies retrenching employees in order to survive . From my following
letter, you will notice that it was no different 35 years ago
[
PRODUCTIVITYAND UNEMPLOYMENT / 12 Feb 1986 ]
Extract :
To give you an example, please see
the chart below showing number of
employees shed by 8 reputed companies.
Name of Company
|
Employees shed or
proposed to be shed (Nos.)
|
|
1.
|
24,000
|
|
2.
|
Ford Motor Co.
|
10,000
|
3.
|
Union Carbide Corpn.
|
4,000
|
4.
|
2,000
|
|
5.
|
Motorola Semi-Convertor Group
|
9,200
|
6.
|
11,200
|
|
7.
|
Kodak
|
9% of its workforce
|
8.
|
Warner-Lambert Co.
|
21,000
|