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International Socialism, Summer 1965

 

David Breen

Love Thy Labour

 

From International Socialism, No.21, Summer 1965, p.32.
Transcribed & marked up by by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

 

Wage Determination and Organised Labour in India
A.J. Fonseca
Oxford University Press, 17s. 6d.

To Dr Fonseca ‘it is becoming more and more, evident that among the motives influencing both union and management leaders, ethical considerations have come to occupy a position of unchallenged authority in deciding especially the lowest level of wage payments ... In this process a powerful and continuous stream of influence at the ethical level has been the social teaching embodied in the papal encyclicals’ (p.31). His interest in wage theory stems from a desire to foster ‘better understanding and healthier relationships between industrial labour, industrial management, and the public authorities’. And he comes tp the conclusion – empirically sustained – that the factors responsible for the increase in money wages in Indian industry over the past generation have been the increase in productivity, the rise in the cost of living and trade-union pressure in a ratio of roughly 12 : 5 : 1.

While his inspiration is dubious, his aims more so and his ‘witness’ that of an outsider (how else could he arrive at the conclusion – p.66 – that the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and the United Trade Union Congress are likely to fuse?), Fonseca does assemble a fair amount of material in accessible form and shows, in passing, some of the peculiarities of the Indian trade-union scene. To quote one example: the Special Bench of the Labour Appellate Tribunal in Calcutta awarded clerks 80 per cent more than manual workers as this ‘is considered to be the extra allowance needed by a middle-class family to which clerks belong for their higher standard of living and requirements in comparison with workmen’ (p.172).

 
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