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Day of global labourer
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More and more workers in the city are choosing money over labour laws, writes SERISH NANISETTI
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ALL WORK AND ALL FOR MONEY The concept of 9-to-5 job is fading out — Photo: Shaju John
Twelve-year-old Santosh looks 10 and fills petrol in some of the swankiest cars in the city at a Jubilee Hills oil vend. Tell the petrol bunk owner that he is using child labour and Santosh will lose his job which pays him Rs. 50 per day. Should you make him lose his job, or should you let him work? A little ahead, the starkness of the choice changes a wee bit as IT and ITES workers of Indian companies pile themselves dangerously into an autorickshaw to be ferried to Madhapur hub of workplaces.
May 1, 1886 two workers were killed for demanding an eight-hour workday in Chicago. Times have changed a world away in Hyderabad in May 1, 2006 as Indian workers try to grab a share of global labour pie. Toss aside work norms, family time, leaves, food, sleep, regular hours the global labourer is here.
The names can be: Rupa, Tabassum, Clarice or Sunil, Anil or Ahmed, but they are making a choice. A choice that will decide which way their career is headed. Slog and slave you will be rewarded. Slouch and lounge you will be cornered.
Meet 32-year-old Shubro who works for a startup. "If we have a project or release of a product then the norms of work go out of our minds. We are so motivated to beat schedules and deadline that even our body gets adjusted to new timings," he says.
He is in line for a bonus as the company has just delivered a British product weeks ahead of delivery time.
"Yeah, yeah. We know, we know, we are making a choice for more money," he says. A few more feathers in the nest and this IIT, IIM degree holder is planning to start his own company and turn himself into a businessman from a worker.
It is not just employee choice. Companies lead them to it with a carrot and stick policy.
One infotech company has a rewards policy where the gift happens to be something that the family wants and not what the company wants to give.
The HR people call the homemaker to find out what the home needs.
Slackers only need to ask for leave and see the glare from their manager to find how wretched they are.
Kanupriya switched to an IT company from an insurance company when it offered to double the salary. "I have lost track of days of the week. I only know Saturday and Sunday, the other days pass in a blur. Sometimes, I even forget which month we are in," she says about her day which begins with a coffee, chauffeured commute, work, work, work and ends with a daze and woozy sleep. Wake up and the routine goes on. Automaton? Maybe.
Pampered people making choices for more moolah? Okay.
Talk to the day-wagers who gather at the labour haat between Madhapur and Gachchibowli IT centres.
If some of them gather at the crack of dawn, the others agree to work in the night; for twice the wage!
They are not begging for work, they choose their work. It is another matter that they work for 12 hours instead of eight.
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