Maruti Suzuki chairman pushes contract workers’ cause at EEPC India Leadership talk

R C Bhargava, the chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, today strongly advocated the cause of workers who should be employed on regular basis in manufacturing units, rather than be employed on contract basis.  

“If a company is carrying out manufacturing with contract workers, what is the feeling? Most of you would agree that a contract worker is going to have minimal amount of feeling or commitment to the company,'' Mr Bhargava said while delivering the first EEPC India Leadership Talks in New Delhi today. 

Acting as a strong votary of employees, Mr Bhargava said even a temporary worker who has a hope of being regularised would deliver better than the contract worker. He said his experience at Maruti Suzuki India shows how active engagement and looking after workers helps the company become global in quality. 

He enumerated how at the carmaker, a Delhi public school was established where workers' kids were given preference and the company saved Rs 300 crore annually from suggestions given by the workers. If managers have to reject their suggestions, they must be given the reason for the same. 

Referring to the ‘Make in India’ programme, the veteran of the automobile industry and a seasoned bureaucrat said the country has in prime minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley leaders who understand how important it is for the country to achieve global quality at competitive costs.

He said the government policies must be changed to give incentives on quality and competitiveness of the MSMEs rather than the number of employees they would have and the number of such units in the sector. The past policies have only acted as disincentives to the productivity and quality of the MSMEs. 

Mr Bhargava said the falling international oil prices are good for India. “Lower oil prices are a huge benefits to India. I am quite happy with lower prices, if it hurts some other countries, it is a bad luck for them.'' On the impact of falling crude prices on capital markets, he commented, 'Stock market does not affect my production.” 

In his address, the chairman of EEPC India (formerly Engineering Export Promotion Council) Anupam Shah said manufacturing has to play a critical role not only for reviving economic growth but also for other aspects such as employment creation as that is key to regeneration of the productive forces and lowering unproductive expenditure of the government. 

This was the first edition of the Leadership Talks series from EEPC India, the country's premier engineering export promotion organization, where leaders from industry, government and other spheres of life would be invited.