The Management of Men

on them. These powers are seriously abused.
What of the welfare of workers? We have to look at the progress made by labour welfare officers, who are required under the Factories Act of 1948. Judging from this study of Bombay factories, there is a vast gap between the welfare officers official duties as on paper and his performance of duties. Pillai observes that what welfare officers do is to solve problems as and when they arise, and that they do not try to prevent problems from arising in the first place. In other words, they deal with specific complaints only, not with general improvements. Further, Indian managers do not bother to implement welfare measures in the order of urgency of the needs of their employees. For instance, the author mentions one firm which had provided a reading room for its night-shift workers even before it had provided toilets.