Employment issues

Technological change which was boon for the industrial sector in case of manufacturing activities, as it
eased the production methods , enhanced productivity but at the same time it reduced the demand for
workers for production. It led to drastic decrease in labor requirement, this led to increase in job loss
rate . Also, there was skill gap among workers as most of the workers who lacked required skills and
knowledge to operate machines found their survival difficult. This led to high attrition rate among
employees. According to Karl Marx ,social transformation is brought by technological change .He says
bourgeoises cannot exist without the new product and processes , this led to the growth of capital
intensive industry , which has increased the unemployment rate. Similarly, Moddy and Wheeler,
analyzed the technological impact on textile industries where he came up with results in fabric
production involves three stage process and there was rapid reduction in labor requirement. According
to research , data revealed there was fall from 565 labor requirement with manual technology to 122
with semi -automated to 39 with robotic technology . At the same time ,this increased the operating
cost at the organizational level .

Rapid automation , mechanization and robotic technology , has reduced the manual interference . But ,
this has reduced the wages , spoiled working conditions , setting up of unrealistic targets for workers
and also the humans are reduced to mere machines, This has increased conflicts and lack of trust in
employment relations. As fear of their job loss mounts and when there is lack of opportunities to
unskilled labors, pushes them to take extreme steps . Employees find it difficult to cope with
technological change .

In this Covid pandemic, organizations provided facility to employees to work from home. But there was
no sense of belongingness in employment relations. As employees are working at home in service sector
, this has decreased productive workplace discussion and has even led to lack of trust issues between
employer and employee .

Automation and mechanization has improved the working conditions but unskilled labor are the major
sufferers as they are employed at lower wages and are exploited by employing them atblow level jobs.
Employers are using more of technical attributes for screening candidates , this has created old
traditional age workers to cope with changing scenario. It has affected the employer employee relations
as ultimately they have to leave the job and face exploitation.
This is evident in Canadian context , it was discovered that competent blue-collar workers, both
unionized and non-unionized, could bargain for higher compensation than those doing physical labor in
Canada. In addition, the bargaining strength of the union was lower for technology innovators than for
non-innovators. In a similar vein, there is an emergence of distinct and firm-specific talents in
modernized textile mills in India, which entail higher cost and time inputs . As a result, in comparison to
other mills, employers are ready to pay greater wages in these mills rather than in non-modernized
mills.

Trade Union Response