Company and contract labour in a central Indian steel plant

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2159644
AutoresJ Parry (0000-0002-2649-9220)
Año2013
Volumen42
Número3
Páginas348-374
Fecha de publicación2013-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2013.772761
OpenAlexW2005064354
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas41
Referencias citadas15

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of the way in which the working world of contract labourers in a public-sector Indian steel plant is differentiated from that of its regular workforce. The two kinds of workers regard themselves as distinct kinds of people and are now best seen as distinct social classes. While the sociology of India has broadly accepted the manual/non-manual labour distinction as the crucial marker of the boundary between the working and the middle classes, what is suggested here is that that between naukri (secure employment) and kam (insecure wage labour) – which cuts right across that distinction and is broadly congruent with that between formal- and informal-sector employment – is a more important marker of difference. At work, the two kinds of workforce are sharply distinguished by the material rewards of their jobs and by their security and conditions of employment; outside it by differences in life-style and attitudes – a gap that has grown with the liberalization of the Indian economy. The composition of the work groups to which the two kinds of labour characteristically belong are sharply differentiated by gender, by regional ethnicity and by urban or rural residence. Interactions within the work group are again very different, while interactions between regular and contract workers are largely confined to the work itself. Outside it they are kept to a minimum, testifying to a shared sense that socially the two kinds of workforce are profoundly different

Business · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Informal sector · Labour economics · Market economy · Residence · Social security · Sociology · Wage · Work (physics · Workforce · Employment and Welfare Studies · Indian Economic and Social Development · Labor Movements and Unions