At a time when corporate India is tackling global downturn and the job market is gloomy, experts believe some companies may be squeezing more work out of employees for lesser pay.
Industry experts say that the downturn has hit on the bargaining power of employees and a new entrant into a company may have to settle for less if he is hard pressed for a job.
Asked whether firms were taking advantage of the downturn and trying to squeeze more work in less pay, KPMG Partner and Head of People and Change Advisory Services Ganesh Shermon told PTI that taking advantage can be positive or negative.
"Negative side is a definite trend. More work at same pay (means) -- longer working hours, extended week days to week ends, tougher travel norms, lower level jobs, Saturday working, depleted training, shorter lunch breaks, continuing threat perception of job loss," Shermon said.
Further, he added that taking advantage in the positive way include practices such as sabbatical leave, learning systems, development center initiatives, personal coaching, re-skilling, leadership development.
"The only advantage that companies are looking at deriving out of this situation of downturn, is that they are concentrating on hiring candidates with the right levels of competence and have stopped submitting to over-demanding candidates," Laurent & Benon Management Consultants director Aman Syal said.
Any sensible company even today realizes that satisfied employees are the only key to success but it would not be wrong to say "that companies have become intolerant towards non performers," Syal added.
PricewaterhouseCoopers India Leader for People and Change practice R Sankar believes both employer and employee need to be pragmatic and think long-term during these times of downturn.
"Employees must also remember they have had a pretty good run over the years and must be prepared to accept less when the going is tough. In the worst case, the choice is stark: keep your job by accepting less, or lose it altogether," Sankar added.
Shermon further said that receiving a fair salary is relative to the situation and only a year back in a sellers market employees were demanding twice of what their job was worth.
"This is now turn of employers or buyers market. Exception to such exploitative practices would be companies such as Unilever, IBM, Coke, Wal-Mart. It is really some Delhi-based companies in construction, real estate, infrastructure, entertainment who have excessively manipulated their employees to suit their valuation dreams," Shermon pointed out.
Asked about the criterion a fair salary, PwC's Sankar said that it the one that is sustainable from an employer's viewpoint, in attracting and retaining the talent needed to achieve business goals.
While, for the employee, a fair salary is one that is broadly in line with the market for his skills and that rewards him for superior performance.
Laurent & Benon Management's Syal advised a job seeker in these times to look at a compensation which would help him/her survive decently and concentrate on things like suitability of role, growth prospects and SWOT analysis of the employer.
However, he said companies were not taking advantage of the downturn to squeeze more work, as the effort to achieve higher levels of productivity is on-going and can never be said to have reached an end and in a competitive global scenario, this is a continuous process.
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