THE FOUNDRY

The foundry has always been regarded as one of the worst places to work in Hindustan Steel Manufacturing Company. The work is hot, dirty and heavy. Physical endurance, rather than brains and intelligence, is considered as chief requirement to get the job done in the foundry. Yet according to the job evaluation plan of the Company, "physical ability" and "working conditions" are weighted relatively lower than "responsibility",

"training" and "skill". As a consequence, most of the foundry jobs are rated at the bottom of the wage scale of the Company In recent years, it has been increasingly difficult to get men for working in the foundry. Management had to actively search for days to get men to work in the foundry. Often, manangement had to employ men who could not get jobs elsewhere due to their personal limitations in terms of ability, intelligence and competence. This had led to further lowering of the already low social status of the foundry in the eyes of other employees in the plant. The matter has reached a crisis now. There are sixteen vacancies in the foundry at present and it is almost impossible to hire new men for these jobs at the evaluated rate.

Personnel Manager of the Company, Mr. Siddhartha Ray, has a difficult task on his hand. Following are some of the basic questions which need to be answered:

Questions

(i)(a) How should this problem be handled ?

(b) Should the Personnel Manager suggest the management to revise its job evaluation programme? Or, should he suggest treating foundry job as an exception to job evaluation?

(ii)How should management deal with the reactions of other workers if it decides to increase foundry wages or change foundry working conditions, but not other wages or working conditions?