Apparel Online India Magazine March 1st Issue 2019 | Page 16

SUSTAINABILITY
WORKS COMMITTEES
STRENGTHEN THE WORKING
OF A FACTORY
I
Archana Tomar Mann, VP, Compliance, CSR,
Training & Development, Orient Craft (OC)
Works Committees are the most productive
way of creating a congenial atmosphere
among the workers of any factory. Be it any
small issue of workers or any major initative
taken by a brand or factory itself, these
committees not only empower and strengthen
the workers, but also improve the overall
working of a factory, removing all kinds of fear,
increasing mutual trust and eradicating all
sorts of conflicts. Archana Tomar Mann, VP,
Compliance, CSR, Training & Development,
Orient Craft (OC), shares with Apparel Online
about OC’s significant successful efforts in
building a strong and supportive team of
workers who are not only loyal to the company
but are also helping in the upliftment of their
colleagues and in the development of the
factory from all possible aspects. Being an MSc
in Botany and MBA in HR & Marketing, she
has had been associated with OC for more
than a decade. Therefore, she has closely
observed OC’s active role in promoting the
works committee whose members strive
towards creating a strong bridge between the
management and the workers of the entire
unit. Having the privilege to represent OC
with regard to its workers’ well-being and CSR
at the offices of many international brands,
she explains here the importance of works
committees in factories today.
n today’s times, it’s very important
to understand the needs and
concerns of workers who constitute
the backbone of an apparel factory.
Any thriving organisation needs to
realise this and invest significantly
in improving the welfare of the
workers, so as to develop and sustain
a productive and quality workforce.
Safety of the workers, committee
formation, food, transportation and
providing minimum wage are some of
the norms in our industry and every
company is expected to provide the
same to its workforce. Nowadays, there
is even an extra something beyond all
these that organisations need to adopt.
So here comes the role of capacity-
building programs like workplace
cooperation, POSH (Prevention of
Sexual Harassment) and HERrespect
which help to strengthen the works
committee and internal complaint (IC)
committee. I would like to mention
here about Workplace Cooperation
Program (WCP), an initiative by
Gap Inc., which primarily focuses on
improving workplace co-operation
and communication between workers
and management and helps to drive
continuous improvement in the
workplace. The program is delivered
in the form of eight modules of training
to the bipartite committee members.
All WCP modules are created to
provide basic necessary skills and
knowledge to the management
and worker representatives in the
bipartite committee to promote sound
industrial relations. In the year 2016,
Gap Inc.started WCP pilot project
with one of our facilities, and now
we have expanded the program to
our three other facilities and will
soon be implementing it also in our
Gap-approved six facilities for which
the trainers have already undergone
the trainers’ program conducted
by Gap Inc.
This program has really helped us to
enhance dialogue and co-operation
between workers and management
to drive sound industrial relations.
Recently we organised a graduation
ceremony for our two units in Noida
and Gurgaon for the first phase of
the program. Parvez Alam, Quality
Checker and one of the committee
members stated: “We feel a sense of
pride and accomplishment that we are
able to help our fellow workers.”
We are also running programs like
POSH (supported by Gap Inc. and
NEXT), HERrespect (currently running
in Noida by American Eagle Outfitters
(AEO) and having been completed
successfully in Chopanki, Rajasthan
by M&S) which have helped us to
build harmonious relationship at the
workplace and have made our IC
Skits prepared and performed by the workers are easy and are one of the best ways of conveying the
message to the other workers (This skit was done at the closing ceremony of workplace co-operation program)
16 Apparel Online India | MARCH 1-15, 2019 | www.apparelresources.com