fellow employees in Unichem did not renege on their
understanding that was shown by the pene of the. pods union and the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena which was the incoming union was remarkable. This was a unique event in the history of trade union movement in Mumbai. I recorded the uniqueness of this event in the Unichem Bulletin.
- Importance of trust in social life is underscored by such events.
I was in a position to keep this approach alive in my fellow employees and the credit goes to the communication that was kept alive by me all through the difficult days. Every religion teaches that one must return the loan taken by one. According to Hindu shastra (21) one has not only to repay loans taken by self but loans taken by father or grandfather as well. It is a duty of every Hindu. The soul of the person cannot enter heaven without completing this duty. This is a part of Hindu traditions of this land.
What I did as a Manager was that I connected the action of my fellow employees to the traditional belief etched on their minds. I only saw to it that they should not default on repayment. I used my position of authority for connecting their belief to their action. Leaders of the union and workers in the factory agreed to it because they were also brought up on the same traditions. They had the same belief system. I only awakened it. The Union which had created the problem and put company to losses could not expect any cooperation from me. It was not expected of me nor was it a part of my job-specifications to do anything in the matter. I was not responsible in any way to the outgoing union. I am however a person who went on writing my own job-specifications.
The Old Union had put my company to losses. I had no responsibility to recover their advance. In fact this advance was given to the workers in order to put pressure on my company. My company was not responsible to repay and did not repay. I got payment made by those who had taken the advance. My fellow workers were duty bound to repay and I facilitated the repayment. I not only reminded them of their duty but also saw to it that they followed it. It was a risky action from my personal point of view as well. The new incoming Union could misunderstand my action as keeping up the contact with the old Union. In the general atmosphere prevailing in such matters it could backfire on me. It was a wrong decision on the face of it. It was against normal business methods. But it was according to Dharma, a right thing to do, but strictly according to normal business dealings a possibly inadvisable thing to do. Workers had lost faith in RV's Union. He could have continued to create harassment for recovery. I knew that as a businessman he would not remain meddling in the losing business. It made business sense to release his investment in the unit. So it happened. As soon as he received his investment he gave up his interest
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