Table of Content

Acknowledgement
Executive summery
Introduction
Problem presentation
Literature review
Solutions
Conclusion
Reference

2
3
4
5
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18
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Acknowledgment

In performing my assignment, its a successful one I had to take the help and
guideline of some respected persons. First of all I would like to thank my parents who
gave me strength to accomplish my assignment. I would like to thank my gratitude
Mr. Prasad Jeerasinghe, Lecturer, Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka for
giving me a good guideline.
I would like to thank Institute of personnel management Sri Lanka. Finally I would
like to thank all my colleagues for their cordial cooperation. Actually it was not
possible for me to complete a severe task without such a help.
I have gone through various websites and books to get the accurate information for
analysis and tried to find the best conclusion.

Imbulana I.A.G.D
PQHRM/120/56

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Executive summery

The following report has been written with the intention to consider current health and
safety procedures of Hantaana tea factory. I have drafted a health and safety
procedures for Hantaana tea factory. To maintain sound quality work life of
employees more is the objective of this case study.
Following analysis I concluded that in order to survive, the Hantaana tea has to
become more profitable. I believe that building a successful organization portal, there
should be healthy employees, is important both for globalizing the brand and for
managing the different business through one platform. Furthermore, I believe that
Hantaana tea factory should concentrate on more of the QWL (quality of work life)
and WE (wok environment) through to become more successful.

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Introduction to the management case study

BOLTS & NUTS
Bolts & Nuts is a Company manufacturing and marketing bolts and nuts. This

manufacturer had a fair share of the market in the said product. During a time when
there was a close economy with restrictions of the import of such items, the Company
enjoyed larger market and was a profit making and successful organization with
around 300 employees working in the Factory.
A government which came into power at a later stage advocated a free economy and
liberalized the import of foreign goods. This made the market getting flooded with
imported goods including bolts and nuts of a better quality at a lesser price. This
change of policy of the government caused difficulties to Bolts and Nuts Company
and they gradually lost the market to a large extent as they could not compete with the
imported goods which were comparably higher in quality. The company failed to take
any significant steps to improve the quality of their goods. They found it difficult to
improve the quality of their goods with the obsolete Plant and Machinery which were
about twenty to thirty years old.
The strategy of the Company was to reduce the cost of production by increased
production with the available resources and to supply bolts and nuts to the market at a
lesser price with a view to stay in the market. The Company was always of the
opinion that the labour was not giving the maximum production and was thinking of
ways and means of getting a higher production from the labour.
By this time the work force was discontented and the machine operators had fallen
into a state of not giving their best. This situation resulted in frequent disciplinary
action being taken against the workers. The position taken up by the Operators were
that it was impossible to increase production with the obsolete machinery they had to
work with. In spite of the Company running on losses day by day, the workers
constantly fought for their rights demanding higher wages, incentives, bonus, more
over time work etc. and disputes were a regular feature. Most of the Workers were
Members of a Trade Union which was not in favor of the existing government. This
union on many occasions took various types of trade union actions including several
strikes. This resulted in the Company losing the market more and more. To meet this
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situation the Company was trying to reduce the labour force and reduce the cost. The
Company adopted various ways to reduce cost in various ways one of their modus
operandi was to dismiss Workers on alleged grounds of misconduct, without success.
In this crisis situation the Workers resorted to acts of willful reduction of production,
pilfering goods of the company and other actions of sabotage. Due to repeated
disciplinary action taken against the workers the Human Resource Manager became
very unpopular. On one occasion the workers engaged in a picketing campaign
during the lunch interval outside the gate and shouting slogans and carrying placards,
became very vociferous. Five selected Employees were dismissed from service on the
alleged charge of carrying placards with defamatory statements against the company
as well as some of the senior Officers including the Human Resource Manager.
The workers who were provoked by this act surrounded the HR Manager at the gate
when he was leaving the office at the end of the day in his car and caused damage to
the vehicle. Although the HR Manager made complaint to the Police, the Police could
not proceed with the case as the HR Manager could not identify the employees who
damaged the car.
Meanwhile, according to a compromise reached between the Union and the
Management, they entered into a Collective Agreement which set out production
targets and certain other matters including some privileges the Management agreed to
give the Workers. However, the Employees found that the targets they had agreed
were unreachable and they renegotiated and got the targets readjusted. Even after this
readjusted targets, there was no improvement in production. The workers explanation
was that the machines were too old and frequent break-downs interrupted production.
At this time there was a change of government again and most of the employees left
their union and joined another union which was said to be pro-government. When
they were questioned about their failure to bring the production targets they agreed to
in the Collective Agreement in breach of the terms of the said Agreement, their reply
was that they were no more bound by the said Agreement as they are no more
Members of the Union that signed the Agreement.
Meanwhile the Environmental Authority compelled the Company to adopt an
alternative system of diffusion of waste water and other waste, as the existing system
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was not environmentally suitable. The Company did a study for a system as suggested
by the Environment Authority and found that the cost of installing such a system was
unbearable and gave up the idea. However, the Authority repeatedly pressed the
Company to go for an environmentally friendly scheme and ultimately threatened to
institute legal action against the Company. After this, the Company decided to move
out the factory, which was situated by the side of a main busy road in Colombo, to a
place about 10 miles away from Colombo. The Company thought of using this
situation to discontinue all the Workers and recruit new Employees at the new
location.
Accordingly they applied to the Commissioner of Labour in terms of the provisions in
the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provision) Act No. 45 of 1971
seeking approval to terminate all Employees in view of the impending closure of the
business. In their application to the Commissioner they gave the following reasons for
closure:1. Liberalization of imports by the Government
2. Inability to compete with the high quality imported products;
3. Unbearable high cost of the waste water system suggested by the
Environmental Authority.
4. Depleted demand for the products of the Company
5. Acts of sabotage by the workers; and
6. Failure by the workers to give an adequate production flow.
While the inquiry before the Commissioner of Labour was still pending, the Company
terminated the services of the entire Workforce and closed down the Factory.
The Workers who alleged that the closure of the business and termination of
employees was illegal, requested the Commissioner to institute legal action against
the employer.
The Commissioner continued with the inquiry commenced under the Termination of
Employment (Special Provision) Act No. 45 of 1971 and ordered the Company to pay
compensation to the discontinued employees (there were only about 175 employees at
the time of the order) in accordance with the Compensation Formula. The amount of
compensation payable to the 175 Workmen by the Company exceeded several
millions.

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1. Evaluate critically the above facts and try to find out what exactly the cause
for this unfortunate situation.
2. Was there a way to avoid this situation?
3. Was there any reason for the poor industrial relations in the Bolts and Nuts
Company Ltd.?
4. Can you point your finger at the HR Manager for this situation?
5. Was there any way to resolve the crisis situation that arose in the Company?

Make a careful study of the above Case, taking into consideration the problems
enumerated from 1 to 5 above and any other problems you may consider relevant and
write an analytical report embodying your findings and recommendations/proposals.

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Problem Analysis
1. Evaluate critically the above facts and try to find out what exactly the cause
for this unfortunate situation.
2. Was there a way to avoid this situation?
`

-No
3. Was there any reason for the poor industrial relations in the Bolts and Nuts
Company Ltd.?
- indiscipline of employees ,Sabotage, unable of update management
4. Can you point your finger at the HR Manager for this situation?
-No. all the management has to be blaming, not only the HR manager.
5. Was there any way to resolve the crisis situation that arose in the Company?

-Collective agreement
-VRS
-Cooperate planning

Literature review
Solutions for the problems found in the case

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Conclusion

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Reference

Books
Labor laws by Baddegama D Amarasena

Websites

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