Unions put on notice

A new survey reveals the change in Tamilnadu's government employees towards confrontations. V Jagannathan interviews K Srinivasan, MD, Prime Point, which conducted the image audit jointly with Public Services International

K SrinivasanChennai: A joint perception / image audit conducted by Public Services International (PSI), France and the Chennai-based Prime Point Public Relations P Ltd amongst Tamil Nadu government employees has brought out the changing attitude of members towards their unions.

According to the PSI-Prime Point image audit, nearly 80 per cent of the 3,000 respondents disapprove of employee unions having political affiliations. Around 70 per cent of respondents strongly feel that the decisions of such unions are not based on employee welfare but on the political alliances.

Things were different in the past when employees favoured politically-affiliated unions as they expected them to get them better hearing from employers who tended to be repressive in nature.

But over a period of time, the human resource policies for organised labour became standardised and transparent and labour laws were enacted.