Cut temporary workforce in factories: Experts

Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) At a time when multi-national and domestic companies employ temporary workers on a large scale resulting in industrial unrest, there is a need to reverse the trend, experts agreed at a conference held here Thursday.

"The current situation gives signals that there is a need to change the present trend of running factories with temporary workers. Changes and corrections have to be done well in time," said Mohan Pyare, secretary, labour and employment department, Tamil Nadu.

He was speaking at the Tamil Nadu HR Summit 2012 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He said the course correction had to be done at the earliest.

K. Srinivasan, managing director at Carborundum Universal Ltd (CUMI) which is a part of the Murugappa Group, said the group was restructuring its work force and over the next three years there may not be any temporary workers in the group factories.

Speaking to reporters later, Srinivasan said while temporary workers cannot be eliminated totally, their compensation would be increased to be nearly at par with that of permanent workforce.

According to R. Dinesh, chairman of CII-Tamil Nadu and joint managing director, T.V. Sundaram Iyengar & Sons Ltd, the industry was keen that Tamil Nadu should have an outsourcing policy to address the skilled labour needs.