Introduction

Quality of Work Life (QWL) is an attempt through a formal program to integrate employee needs and well being with
the intention of improved productivity, greater worker involvement and higher levels of job satisfaction.
EIGHT CONCEPTUAL CATEGORIES OF QWL
1. Adequate and fair compensation,
2. Safe and healthy working conditions,
3. Opportunity to use and develop human capacities,
4. Future opportunity for continued growth and security,
5. Social integration in the work place
6. Social relevance of work,
7. Balanced role of work in the total life space
8. Constitutionalism in the work organization
OBJECTIVES OF QWL
Improve employee satisfaction;
Improve physical and psychological health of employees which creates positive feelings;
Enhance productivity of employees;
Reinforce workplace learning;
Improved management of the on-going change and transition;
Build the image of the company as best in recruitment, retention -Employer branding
General motivation of employees
TECHNIQUES USED TO IMPROVE QWL

Job Enrichment:
Under traditional management, the principle of division of work and specialisation was applied
so that an individual could do a particular work more efficiently. However, this made the job of
workers monotonous.

Job Rotation:

A vertical job rotation means promotion whereas a horizontal job rotation means transfer to
some other
job. Job rotation makes an employee to learn the new job at the new seat thereby creating
interest in the new job.
1. Job-Redesign
Job-Redesign or changing the nature of people's job is used more as a motivational technique.
Realistic job previews: Honest explanations of what a job actually entails
Job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment.
Expectancy theory & Job characterestic theory helps explain the role of work design in motivation.
Five Core Dimensions of Work
1. Skill variety: The variety of activities required in carrying out the work
2. Task identity: The completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work
3. Task significance: How much impact the job has on the lives of other people
4. Autonomy: The freedom, independence, and discretion that one has to do the job
5. Job feedback: How much performance feedback the job provides to the worker
2) Autonomous work groups Self managed teams (Quality circles):
High performance teams (with assigned membership) assume traditional managerial duties such as staffing and
planning as part of their normal work routine.
Groups of employees who operate without direct supervision from superiors, taking decisions themselves on the
division and allocation of tasks, selection and training of new group leaders, methods of working, etc.
Self-management fosters creativity, motivation, and productivity
3. Alternative Work Schedule
Compressed Workweek
Part-Time Work
Job Sharing
Telecommuting
Flexible working hours (flexitime),
part-time employment

Organizations also frequently use the modified 'work-week' as a way to increase employee motivation. A modified
'work-week' can be any work schedule that does not conform to a traditional 8 hours a day or 5 days a week format.
The modified 'work-week' helps individual satisfy higher-level needs by providing more personal control over one's
work schedule. It also provides an opportunity to fulfil several needs simultaneously.
Flextime: A work schedule that allow employees to choose their own arrival and departure times within specified
limits
The employer allows its workers to set their own hours as long as a set number of hours are met each week. Instead of
working 9-5, someone may choose to work 7-3, 10-6, etc. You may need to commit to being available during the
"prime work hours," 10am-3pm. This is a fair concession if your mployer/client is having reservations about your
availability.
Benefits
Better employee-supervisor relations
Reduced absenteeism
Selective positive impact on job performance (improves productivity for some jobs, but not for others)
Expanded concept of flextime
Reduced time, paid leaves, telecommuting
Compressed workweeks: 40 or more hours in fewer than five days
Semipermanent and permanent part-time: work weeks with fewer than 40 hours.
Job sharing: complementary scheduling that allows two or more part-timers to share a single full-time job
Telecommuting.
Telecommuting is defined as a work arrangement in which some or all of the work is performed at an off-campus
work site such as the home or in office space near home. Communication may be by phone, e-mail, fax, and pager.
Equipment may be owned and maintained by the employee or by the University
Roughly one-quarter (24.6%) of U.S. employees engaged in telecommuting, compared to only 13.0% of EU
employees.
Full or part-time employees work from home. Communications to the office are done via computer and/or phone. This
is great option if you need a set day or two. Some employees who travel frequently often use the beginning of the
week as a telecommuting day to catch up on correspondence, reports, etc.
Advantages of telecommuting
The employee may find significant reductions in commuting expenses, stress, and even clothing costs, and a greater
ability to deal with dependent care responsibilities
The department may have significant savings in space and equipment, and significant improvements in productivity.
A department that offers telecommuting may find itself viewed as a model employer, and may thus attract many
applicants and experience reduced turnover.
The campus will experience fewer problems with traffic and parking, and will be better able to meet its air quality
goals.
Part-time :
Employees working for 15-20 hour weeks
an alternative to hiring temporary workers. Need not be trained,
Job Sharing
This arrangement involves two or more workers sharing one full-time position -- with each working the hours that are
most convenient for him or her. If you're not a morning person, you may find the afternoon hours more convenient and
vise versa.
Compressed workweek is the scheduling of a traditional 40-hour week into fewer than five full days by adjusting
the number of hours worked per day. An example of a compressed schedule is working four ten-hour days with one
full day off each week.
5) Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of the biotechnical relationship between the physical attributes of workers and physical
demands of the job. The objective is to reduce physical and mental strain in order to increase productivity and QWL.
6) Quality Circles
Quality Circles (QC) are small groups of workers who meet regularly with their supervisor as their 'circle leader' to
solve work-related problems. QCs give an employee an opportunity for involvement, social-need satisfaction,
participation in work improvement and challenge and opportunity for growth. They are, in essence, vehicles for

providing employees with opportunities to satisfy lower and upper-level needs as stated by Maslow, through the
motivators described in 'Herzberg's theory.
7) Employee Participation
Participative Management
The process of empowering employees to assume greater control of the workplace
Setting goals
Making decisions
Solving problems
Designing and implementing organizational changes
- Three approaches to participation
Quality control circles
Open-book management (OBM)
Self-managed teams
8)Open-Book Management (OBM)
Sharing a companys key financial data and statements with all employees and providing the education that will
enable them to understand how the company makes money and how their actions affect its success and bottom line
Benefits of OBM
- Displays a high degree of trust in employees
- Creates strong commitment to employee training
- Teaches patience when waiting for results
9) Empowerment :
Giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or
customer service.
Employee empowerment systems Self managed teams, suggestion systems, employee surveys, gain sharing,
communication programs, work teams, job enrichment, skill-based pay.
Advantages of empowerment for employees
Empowerment provides a sense of high self-esteem
High degree of involvement and participation,
A learning environment opportunity for personal growth and development,
A greater of sense of achievement.
Labour welfare
Conventions and Recommendations have covered wide range of subjects concerning labour, for example, working
conditions including hours of work, weekly rest, and holidays, wages, labour administration, employment of children
and young persons including minimum age of employment, medical examination, night work, employment of women
including maternity protection, night work and employment in unhealthy processes and equal pay, health, safety and
welfare, social security, industrial relations including right to organise collective bargaining and conciliation, and
employment and unemployment

OBJECTIVES OF THE LABOUR LEGISLATIONS

Establishment of justice - Social, Political and Economic.
(2) Provision of opportunities to all workers; irrespective of caste, creed, religion, beliefs;
for the development of their personality.
(3) Protection of weaker sections in the community.
(4) Maintenance of Industrial Peace.
(5) Creation of conditions for economic growth.
(6) Protection and improvement of labour standards.
(7) Protect workers from exploitation.
(8) Guarantee right of workmen to combine and form association or unions.
(9) Ensure right of workmen to bargain collectively for the betterment of their service
conditions.
(10) Make state interfere as protector of social well being than to remain an onlooker.
(11) Ensure human rights and human dignity.

THE CLASSIFICATION
Regulative
(2) Protective
(3) Wage-Related

(4) Social Security

(5) Welfare both inside and outside the workplace

THE REGULATIVE
The main objective of the regulative legislation is to regulate the relations between employees and employers and to
provide for methods and manners of settling industrial disputes. Such laws also regulate the relationship between the
workers and their trade unions, the rights and obligations of the organisations of employers and workers as well
as their mutual relationships

The Trade Unions Act, 1926

Trade unions are primarily formed to regulate the relations between workmen and employers. The Act provides for
registration of trade unions, which also includes association of employers.

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 primarily regulates industrial relations in India. The Act provides a machinery and
procedure for settlement of industrial disputes by negotiation, without resorting to strikes and lockouts.
A tentative list of disputes, covered under this Act is reproduced below:
i. The propriety or legality of standing orders.
ii. Discharge or dismissal
iii. Matters pertaining to reinstatement or grant of relief for wrongful dismissal.
iv. Matters pertaining to withdrawal of any concession or privilege.
v. Matters pertaining to strike or lockout
vi. Payment of wages, including periodicity and mode of payment.
vii. Leave and hours of work
viii. Holidays
ix. Bonus
x. Retirement benefits

Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946

This Act requires employers to clarify conditions of employment so as to enable the workmen (employed by them) to
understand the rules of conduct pertaining to working hours, holidays, attendance, leave, termination of employment,
suspension or dismissal, misconduct, etc. The Act is applicable to industrial establishments, employing 100 or
more workmen.
Basis of classification of workman permanent, probationers, temporary, casual, apprentices, badlis
(ii) Information on working time
(iii) Information on holidays and paydays
(iv) Wage rates
(v) Shift work
(vi) Attendance and late coming

THE PROTECTIVE
Factories Act, 1948 regulate working
conditions in factories primarily for women and children and to provide them health and
safety measures.

The Shops and Establishments Acts

It seeks to regulate the working conditions of
workers in the unorganized sector, including shops and establishments which do not
come under the Factories Act Regulations for working hours, rest intervals, overtime,
holidays, termination of service, maintenance of shops and establishments and other
rights and obligations of the employer and employees are laid down

WAGE-RELATED
The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
The Act is intended to regulate payment of wages in a particular form at regular intervals
without any unauthorised deductions. It is applicable to the employees receiving wages
below Rs.1,600 per month. As per the Act, employers are responsible for payment of
wages to the employees duly fixing the wage periods (which in no case should exceed
one month)

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948

The Act provides for minimum statutory wages for scheduled employment. The Act
also stipulates maximum daily working hours, weekly rest and overtime. It prevails over
the rates fixed under any award agreement. The Act empowers the State Government
to fix minimum wages, failing which they cease the right to engage labour and run the
industry.

The Payment of Bonus Act

The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 imposes statutory liability on employers (covered
under the Act) to pay bonus to employees according to the prescribed formula, linking
the bonus with profits or productivity. Bonus is payable to every employee receiving salary or wages up to Rs. 3,500
per month, provided the employee has worked at least Labour Welfare
for 30 days in that year, save and except those employees who have been dismissed
from service for fraud, riotous or violent behaviour, or theft, misappropriation or sabotage
of any property of the establishment

SOCIAL SECURITY
The Workmens Compensation
Factories and establishments which are not covered under the Employees State Insurance
Act, are covered under this Act to provide relief to workmen and/or their dependents in
case of accidents arising out of and in the course of employment causing either death or
disablement of workmen.

The Employees State Insurance Act

The principal objective of this Act is to provide to the workers medical relief, cash
benefits for sickness, compensation for employment injuries (which also covers
occupational diseases), pension to the dependents of deceased workers and maternity
benefits to women workers.

The Employees PF and Miscellaneous Provisions Act

The Act provides for compulsory contributory fund for social security of the employees
and their dependents (in case of death). It extends to every factory, establishment
employing 20 or more persons.

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961

This provides maternity benefits to women employees. It sets out that a woman may
avail 3 months leave with full salary before or after the birth of her child

Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972

This Act is also a social security measure to provide retirement benefit to the workmen,
who have rendered long and unblemished service to the employer. Employees are entitled
to receive gratuity under the Act, provided they have rendered continuous 5 years service
or more at the rate of 15 days wages for each completed year, subject to a maximum of
Rs.3,50,000.

WELFARE LABOUR
Legislations coming under this category aim at promoting the general welfare of the
workers and improving their living conditions. Though, in a sense, all labour-laws can be
said to be promoting the welfare of the workers and improving their living conditions and
though many of the protective labour laws also contain chapters on labour welfare;
Limestone and Dolomite Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1972
ii. The Mica Mines Welfare Fund Act, 1946
iii. The Iron Ore Mines, Manganese Ore Mines and Chrome Ore Mines Labour Welfare
Fund Act, 1976
iv. The Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981
v. In addition, some state governments have also enacted legislations for welfare
funds
vi. Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976
The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
ii. Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
iii. Building and other construction workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions
of Service) Act, 1996
iv. Apprentices Act, 1961
v. Emigration Act, 1983
vi. Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959
vii. Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service)
Act, 1979
viii. Sales Promotion Employees (Condition of Service) Act, 1976