* Since the making of this recommendation an Enquiry Committee has been set up to examine all aspects of the Resettlement and Employment Organisation and offer recommendations regarding its future.

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(d) The value of provision of technical and-vocational training has been gaining recognition only recently. Facilities provided through the technical and industrial schools, the training centres of the Ministry of Labour and the apprenticeship and training arrangements in industrial undertakings have remained by and large uncoordinated. The All-India Survey which is being conducted by the Director-General, Resettlement and Employment, should help to bring about the necessary coordination. Proper tests and standards should also be laid down. In any such training scheme the problem of the unemployed worker should receive special consideration. This will chiefly be in the form of adequate provision of retraining facilities with due regard to the prospects of future employment and the establishment of vocational guidance and employment counsel services

60. Another difficulty in the way of increase in production and reduction in costs is that several industries are faced with labour surplus to their requirements. The problem of rationalisation has so far proved difficult of solution. Notwithstanding the imperative need to reduce costs by rationalising industrial processes, the working class has strongly resisted it because of the consequent displacement of labour. It is now possible to reconcile the conflict and facilitate the progress of rationalisation on the strength of the following safeguards :-

(i) Musters should be standardised, and work-loads fixed on the basis of technical investigations carried out by experts selected by the management and labour. Side by side working conditions should also be standardised. In the case of new machinery, a period of trial may be necessary before standardisation is effected;

(ii) Wherever rationalisation is contemplated, fresh recruitment should be stopped and vacancies due to death and retirement should not be refilled ;

(iii) Surplus workers should be offered work in other departments wherever possible without causing a break in service and without bringing down their emoluments as far as possible ;

(iv) Having regard to the position regarding raw materials, the state of the capital market, the availability of capital goods and the demand for the products of an industry, wherever the conditions of the industry permit, new machinery should be installed ;

(v) Gratuities should be offered as inducement to workers to retire voluntarily

(vi) Retrenchment should be effected from amongst persons who have been freshly employed ;

(vii) Where management and labour agree, the possibility of working for seven days in week may be explored as a temporary measure ;

(viii) Workers thrown out of employment as a result of rationalisation should be offered facilities for retraining for alternative occupations. The period of such training may extend upto nine months. A training scheme should be jointly worked out by Government, employers and workers ;

(ix) The maintenance of workers during the training period should be the responsibility of the management, whereas the cost of training should be borne by the Government ;

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(x) Full use should be made of the possibilities of utilizing surplus labour in various projects undertaken by Government ;

(xi) Incentives for sharing the gains of rationalisation through higher wages and a better standard of living should be provided. Where such gains are made through the additional efforts of workers, they should receive a share in the resulting benefit most of which should pass to workers where wages are below the living wage. Where there has been some capital investment by the management, this should be taken into account in distributing the workers' share. The object is to facilitate the workers attaining a living wage standard through acceptance of rationalisation.

V.PRODUCTIVITY

61. Considerable attention has been focussed on the productivity of labour in recent years both in this country and abroad. Employers in India have complained that productivity per worker has been going down. Workers contest this allegation with equal vehemence. It is, therefore, necessary that scientific investigations regarding these claims should be undertaken. Such investigations pre-suppose the existence of trained personnel, reliable industrial and labour statistics and a scientific attitude on the part of organisations of employers and workers. None of these conditions exists in the country today and much preparatory work is needed. The first step is to evolve methods for carrying out productivity studies under Indian conditions before the share of the different factors in the causation of high or low levels of productivity can be allocated on the basis of such studies. It is therefore suggested that a team of productivity experts should be invited under the Technical Assistance Programme and that this team should be charged with the responsibility of training a sufficient number of officers from Government, industry and trade unions in developing methods of productivity. As a result of discussions between the Labour Ministry and the Planning Commission, and on a request made by the Labour Ministry, the I.L.O. has formulated proposals for technical assistance in the field of systems of payment by results and productivity. The experts to be sent out by the I.L.O. would undertake studies in the textile and engineering industries. After making a preliminary selection of the undertakings in which the studies are to be carried out, the experts would undertake a thorough analysis of the existing organisation and methods of work, job classification and wage scale with a view to suggesting improvements designed to increase efficiency and productivity and to improve working conditions. Indian experts from Government, employers and trade unions would be associated in this work. A limited number of persons from establishments would also be trained by the experts.

62. Closely allied with this subject is the training-within- industry programme. These T.W.I. methods enable supervisors to play a vital part in the operation of the industry. The scheme is intended to improve supervisory skill by three separate programmes ; job Instruction, to develop skill in instructing workers in their particular operations ; job Relations, to develop skill in the Management of personnel; and job Methods to develop skill in improving

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working technique. The Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association with the assistance of the I.L.O.'s Asian Field office on Technical Training, has carried out some valuable experiments in one of the textile mills of Ahmedabad. The supervisors and the heads of the departments were trained in the technique of " Job Instruction " by the I.L.O. experts on training-within-industry. The results of the experiments have shown an increase in production from 7 per cent to 18 per cent in different sections of the Spinning Department and 11 per cent to 30 per cent in different sections of the Weaving Department.

63. Much of this valuable work will be lost after the departure of the experts unless permanent arrangements are made to carry it on afterwards. This should be part of the function of the Labour Ministry. Future action should be on the following lines :

(a) Experts on training-within-industry should be invited under the Technical Assistance Programme to impart training in these methods.

(b) A sufficient number of officers from the Labour Ministry, employers' organisations and trade unions should be trained in the methods of productivity, payment by results, and training-within- industry. They will be mainly responsible for imparting training to a sufficient number of persons in different industries. Productivity and training-within-industry schools should be organized.

(c) An Advisory Committee consisting of representatives of employers' organisations and trade unions should be set up to advise the Ministry on all matters pertaining to these subjects.

(d) The work should be carried out in close co-operation and with the help of institutes and firms of industrial consultants engaged in similar studies.

(e) Regular conferences of managers, technicians and trade union officers for discussion of all the aspects of these methods should be organised.

(f) Side by side with the studies in the textile and engineering industries, in consultation with experts such information as may be necessary should be collected concerning further industries to which the studies should be extended. On the basis of such information a regular programme of extension of productivity and training-within- industry methods for the next few years should be drawn up.