Industrial Relations at TVS.

1. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
AT

2. INTRODUCTION
o Shri T.V Sundaram Iyengar established TVS group in 1911. The holding company of the TVS
Group is T V Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Private Limited. With Headquarters in Madurai,
the company enjoys a global presence.
o Most of the group holdings are private and specialize in manufacturing two-wheeler,
three-wheeler, auto-electrical components, high tensile fasteners, die casting products,
and much more.
o The group has 30 plus subsidiaries among which TVS Motors is the most visible and largest
subsidiary.

3. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AT TVS
TVS management follows a harmony mantra that focuses on
o Treating and trusting employees like family members
o Putting employee’s interest ahead and constantly communicating with them to build trust.
o Always honor assurances given to employees and involve employees while taking major
decisions.
o Empower employees at work and tolerate errors of judgement but penalize dishonesty.
o Do no pressure employees to take part in unethical acts.

4. The management thinks that the unique relationship they have with their employees is one of the major
factors that helped them transform TVS group from a small family business to a multinational company
with a wide range of businesses.
Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director at Sundram Fasteners and Venu Srinivasan, chief of TVS
Motor make it a point to directly interact with workers across all their factories at least three times a year.
TVS group has always been ahead in providing workers with benefits. They provided benefits like
provident fund, Gratuity, Bonuses and addition of healthy section food in canteen.
Management of TVS group cares about their employees even after they leave.

5. S. Chinnasamy, who was a union leader for over 20 years and a quality
control inspector at Sundram Fasteners, said that medical cost of the
employee and his family members is borne by the company whatever the
amount may be. He also said the company offers scholarships to their
children and there was nothing more he could ask for.

6. EXAMPLES OF POSITIVE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AT TVS
1. Industrial Relations are at TVS are exceptional. The first incident that proved this
happened soon after independence. The undivided communist party called a nationwide
strike that led to shutting down of many manufacturing plants. However, the employees
working at TVS workshop in Madurai locked themselves inside the manufacturing plant
and continued working. They thought that continuously traveling back and forth from
their home to work might invite reprisals.
2. The Second incident that proved industrial relations at TVS are exceptional happened in
the year 2008 during the financial crisis. The management at TVS & Sons wanted to cut off
labor wages but they left it upon the labors to decide how much wages they could for go.
The workers instead of protesting agreed to the proposal and said that they were ready
for a 15% cut in the wages that surprised the management as they had agreed upon only
a 5% cut in their wages. When asked by the management what was the reason for this
decision the employees said the company had always stood by us and they saw this as an
opportunity to help the company overcome a temporary crisis.

7. TRADE UNIONS AT TVS
Trade unions at TVS group are quite different from the usual trade unions. While other trade
unions will start protesting if the management takes action against unproductive or
misbehaving employees, Trade unions at TVS identify such employees themselves and seek to
correct them and if they fail, they take it upon themselves to bring the workers conduct to the
notice of the management.

8. POLICIES OF THE COMPANY
TVS Motor has many policies for smooth and sensible conduct of the business. Some policies
for misconduct are very strict which may result in the dismissal of the employee. They give
due importance to their customers as well as their shareholders. For that reason they follow
the ‘Whistle Blower’ policy, to catch the act of misconduct in the organization.

9. STRIKES AT TVS
TVS Group has a history of over 100 years and in these 100 years it has never faces any serious
problem of strikes and lockouts. The first company under TVS Group is TVS & SONS was
started in 1911 has a strike free record.
Only four companies under TVS Group has faced one strike each.
Sundaram Clayton, Lucas TVS and Brakes India have had faced strikes in 1977 while TVS
Motors was shut down for three days in 1992. But all these strikes were triggered by external
factors such as efforts of rival political parties