Sole of capitalism

Bata-patrons in Bengal tend to happily forget the fact that the footwear company is an MNC. Bata has been so inextricably a part of the middle class Bengali8217;s social experience 8212; there8217;s an eponymous company town, Batanagar, in the state 8212; that cultural familiarity has almost obliterated facts of foreign ownership. Part of that culture used to be an approach to commerce that accepted comfortable, staid, heavily labour union-influenced and, thanks to all that, inefficient ways of doing business. But Bengal is changing. So it is no surprise and no coincidence either that Bata is finally changing, too.

Had this been the Bengal before Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Bata would have almost certainly faced massed ranks of the labour aristocracy had it planned to shut down stores and ask recalcitrant managers and workers to leave. There may still be some difficulties. But the deed is done and it has been done in a Bengal that no longer reflexively equates 8216;progressive8217; politics with ossified economics. The Bata rationalisation after all came in the wake of the Left Front changing some old, restrictive clauses in the Shops and Establishment Act, allowing stores to stay open longer.

The other inference here for all votaries of 8216;progressive8217; politics is that refusing to admit the imperatives of competition hurts labour more than capital. Bata8217;s unions have been refusing perfectly sensible changes in working conditions 8212; there was to be no increase in working hours per week 8212; the company required to implement to compete with both local and multinational stores. Union obduracy has been paid for by job termination. Competition will impose similar demands all across India and it can8217;t be that only the organised sector labour aristocracy be kept above the fray, while unskilled labour and skilled white-collar employees both learn to live with the market. India8217;s demographic dividend implies employers will find it easier every year to get non-unionised semi-skilled labour for jobs in sectors like retail. Indeed, Bata8217;s new plans include stores staffed by employees working on renewable contracts. The boot is in the process of being put on the other foot.