Illustration: Suman Choudhury

This is the season of strikes. Bank staff (don’t call them workers) have been agitating for wage revisions and a ban on mergers. Reserve Bank of India employees have walked out demanding higher pension. Bureaucrats and public sector employees are waiting for the Pay Commission largesse, so they have been relatively quiet. But in many other places — as workers try and extract as much as they can by way of festive season bonus — acrimony is at the top of the agenda.

So it should not be a surprise that the newspapers have reported that the unions of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) are going on a strike over bonus. The company is willing to pay Rs 33,000; they want Rs 40,000.

But it actually is a surprise. RIL has the reputation of being an understanding employer. Sure, you are expected to kowtow to the owners and it’s a monarch-vassal relationship. But that’s the way it is in most family-owned Indian businesses, and nobody’s really complaining.

RIL has been known to be a company that cares for its people. When the petroleum retail business had to be downsized (because rivals sold cheaper fuel, thanks to government subsidies), many of the surplus staff were absorbed in the general retail business. When there was no place even there, the company started an informal outplacement service to find jobs for those they could not accommodate internally. The “caring” — founder Dhirubhai Ambani used to treat his employees like his family — extends to several areas. So are the folks at Reliance really going on strike?

Look closer and you will find the reason. The people threatening a strike are employees of the former public sector unit Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) which was taken over and merged with RIL. You can take a man out of the public sector, but you cannot take the public sector mentality out of a man.

Don’t think this is a purely Indian phenomenon. India is the last bastion of the comrades, so one might be tempted to assume so. Look at some current international headlines — “Thousands of public sector workers in UK to strike”, “Greeks strike over economic reforms”, “Romanian public sector union threatens pay strike”, “Colombia in crisis as trade unions call general strike”…

What is it about the public sector that encourages a spirit of confrontation and strikes? “My view is very controversial,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao. “But the fact is that there is no HR in the public sector.”

The early history of capitalism, she points out, was one of exploitation. But the private sector soon realised that you could get the best results only if you treated your employees as stakeholders. But they had their place in the hierarchy of importance. And it wasn’t right on top.

The public sector, on the other hand, was started in many places with the assumption that the employees were the most important stakeholders. The objective of the enterprise is to make money for them (in the form of wages and benefits). Very often, these companies are monopolies. Quality is not important. The customer can take it or leave it. And work is merely an irritant; you do as little of it as possible.

In this environment, the HR function in a public sector unit is merely to sign pay cheques, sanction leave, edit the house magazine and organise an annual sports day. Negotiations are either external (the government talks to the unions) or involve the top management.

Are things changing? “Perhaps,” says Rao. “In a market economy, the government sector and bureaucracy cannot remain the biggest dole system in the world, as it is today.” But she warns that things could be changing the other way around too. Ask RIL. Is it in danger of becoming a public sector company?

LOOKING INWARDS

How public sector managers see themselves

Only half of the respondents view themselves as providing strategic value to the organisation. Given that people are generally more positive about their performance than those they serve, this is a disturbing find.

Barely half the respondents are satisfied with the technology they are using to support the HR function.

Over 70 per cent of public sector respondents indicate that becoming a leader in total talent management would make HR more strategic to their organisation.

Learning management and benefits administration are the processes most frequently cited as being supported by shared services. Payroll was named the process most frequently outsourced.

Source: Survey of US public sector HR executives by EquaTerra and Human Resource Executive magazine