Few takers for industrial relations at B-schools

In the wake of labour trouble at Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant, the area of industrial relations is back in focus.

Partha Bhattacharyya, former chairman of Coal India, knows the importance of good industrial relations, having led the mining company to a successful initial public offering, despite opposition from trade unions. “When you are dealing with HR (human resources), usually there’s an effort to improve managerial competence. But it’s vital the welfare of workers is considered and there is transparent communication. IR (industrial relations) needs to get prime attention,” he says. But more often than not, IR is relegated to the back seat.

At B-schools like Jamshedpur’s XLRI, this has resulted in less than 10 per cent of all students wanting to pursue a career in IR. “About 90 per cent of our students are engineers, who come here after working for a few years. Very few want to do IR because the salaries are lower and the profiles aren’t always comfortable. Compared to banks or consulting firms, manufacturing firms often pay less. For their summer placements, too, most don’t take IR-related projects,” says Santanu Sarkar, professor of industrial relations at the institute.

The answer, feels Marcel Parker, an experienced HR hand with stints at Raymond, Voltas and Modi Xerox, is that plant management and the HR department need to be equally responsible for managing relations with employees.

Busrai concurs. “You have to get line managers to handle people issues and HR managers must be there to help,” he says.