Indian Workers in Italy

Today, I complete one more mission in my life. I had never thought of it in recent past that I will do something of this sort. When I wanted to leave L&T, my friend Chavan offered me one assignment, Will you go to Italy. It was an usual job offer, but it turned out to be my mission. I was to lead a team of welders to one comapny in Italy. This was the first time that some Indian welders (or workers or technicians) were going to get employed in Italy. This was the opportunity as business for Fabtech, also an opportunity for Indians to earn more in a very different atmosphere, demanding working culture. For me, it became a responsibility to prove Indian capabilities, for I thought if I prove, it opens door for a few Indians, doors of employment, doors of more income, doors of prosperity.
I accepted a challenge, stayed away from loving family for 6 months last year & We could make good impression, first impression. In fact the company management was not happy with the attitude of the workers in the first batch, but they were very happy with my knowledge, dedication & integrity. They accorded us a second chance.
I travelled two months back with 10 workers, this time young, enthu, energetic, with multi-skills, this selection was a very good move by Chavan, who read situation & management demands very clearly. We won the half battle there. I faced a lot of problems in shop to make the guys understand the job responsibilities, requirements here. I was overworked with my role to accomplish the targets. First two months were very crucial as the acceptance was to be decided after 2 months. I worked very hard, played my moves time & again.
And yesterday, We got clearance to bring 20 more welders from India. With that we will have highest number of people compared to other competatitive Hungarian contractors.
Now, more Indians will come to work here, earn here & elevate their life-style also.
Now, we are reaching to many more organisations & will try to employ more & more Indians.

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Labour Scene In Italy

I share my impressions about labour scenario here :

1. Italy, as such is not as industralised nation like other European countries, UK, France, Germany. In fact it is at the bottom of the list as far as GNP is concerned. There are very few big industries. And general manufacturing is more than specialised industrial manufacturing. Very few industrial houses. The medium sized companies are owned by old kings' families. No good prospectus for businessmen & they don't show Interest in increasing their businesses like the erstwhile capitalists, like how our Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas do.

2. This is because the general attitude of the people here. They don't like to work, They like to enjoy life. People here are assured of minimum wages for whatever work you do. Hence people prefer the low-skilled jobs than industrial jobs. Low skilled jobs are normally are working in bar, shop, even electrician or plumber. They earn almost the same as industrial worker.

3. This is also because most of the industrial jobs have fixed timing & 5 days work. Italians don't like to tie themselves with strict timings, they like flexibility. In my company all non-Italians come at 6.00 am & work 10 hrs min, second shift same, they go home at 2.00 am. & Italians come 8.00 to 5.00 , No Saturdays & Sundays.

4. Hence, finding a skilled & most important willing person to work in industry is nightmare for the management.

5. Further, they can not attract people from one industry to the other because pay-scales are almost same across industry. e.g. The engineer working for some non-industrial company will get the same pay for the same level in industrial company.

6. In general, the students also don't like to study for 16 years to become doctor or engineer. It is very tough to spend these many years to study as
per them. Hence the industrial staff also is not having engineering formal education. They earn the required technical skills by working on-job hands-on. On day 1, I was surprised to find only 3 engineers in Production team incl my boss, ProdMgr or only one qualified engineer in QA that too he is in-charge, only 3 engineers in design department. Further to my surprise, out of 11 design staff, 8 are draftsman working as design engineers. Sales,Marketing, Project Management, Purchase : all these functions are handled by under-graduates & not engineers as in India or elsewhere. And, this is the trend allover industry.

7. Looking at the advertisements in newspapers, the demand for general operators (which includes, turners, machine operators, assembly line operators, chemical plant operators), auto-cad draftsman, fitters, auto-mecahnics & maintt fitters is tremendous. With these trends, in fact the industry close down rate is alarming. Except auto-industry is booming. There is strong attarction for career in automobiles. All the engineers who pass out, will always want to go to auto industry.

9. Normally, the employer hire people for 3 to 6 months only as a trial period. I learnt that this is because even people leave the job within 2-3 months if they don't like. This happens more than the retainment by employer.

10. The labour & industy has gone thr' turmoils during the last 3 to 4 decades. But for the last 15 years industrial peace is here to stay. Thirty years ago, there was a lot of industrial unrest. Strikes were the order of the day. A lot of unions in each company. No political affiliations. A lot of fights for wages, hikes, facilities, rights. The strikes would come at short notice. Many times strikes would last only for 3 to 4 hours. Always there would be street demonstrations in big capital cities like Roma, Milano, Napoli. I heard that this is the forgotten past now. The systematic & steady labour reforms have changed everything. This needs appreciation. The laws force the companies to have everything for labour & nobody can escape from it. ( in fact, I will write a detailed mail later as far as law enforcement here is concerned), And this is the best change country has witnessed. In spite of the political instability ( that is the another topic, I will be commenting on), the labour scenerio & social scenario have changed for better.

12. Social security ( another nice topic ) assurance is the tax paid by every citizen, they have to actively work for 35 years of their life. Earn minimum to live & pay this tax. Once you pay this tax, then rest of the life, you get the pension, you get the medical facilities free of cost. What else you want ? And the min wages are so assured that even if I work in supermarket as cashier, I get payment which satisfies all my necessities & also pay the required tax. Yes, I will not be able to buy new generation mobile with this pay, but certainly will be able to eat nice things thr'out the month ( salaries for such small jobs are paid weekly ). You know. last week I had a hair cut for Rs 900/- ( 15 Euros ) , then I bought the hair trimmer for 15 Euros for next 5 months.

The general impression about India here is that the country, its people arevery poor. But they are hard working. Italians don't fear like Americans that one day India & China will be superpowers because Italians in general are not at all aware what Indians are capable of. They don't know much about India, Indian heroes. This is partly because general interest level of Italians. They are just not bothered about the rest of the world. They are more bothered about beauty, food, clothes etc. etc. But are very simple people without any bias.

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My Initial Impressions in Italy

I arrived here in Italy on 06-06-06, a coincidence. We, I am with other 2 guys who are welders, are only Indians in this part of Italy. We are stationed in Codraipo, Koh_the_rra_ee_poh , in Udine regione, north-east of Venice, 125 kms away. I completed one month of stay & now find myself comfortable with people, atmosphere here. We are not finding time to move around as we have 6 days a week ( and it is costly too) But I will share a few observations, which are out of my stay in medium sized town & occasional visit to big cities like Udine, Venice. Italy seems to be country of rich culture, we are greeted everyday by number of unknown people.
The factors which I appreciated here : The respect for human-being:Very polite in speaking ( I found Italiano language very sweet), no high tone in voice, I didn't find people raising voice or fighting in last 20 days even in my company which is similar to L&T & the picture is 180 degrees opposite of L&T.

The discipline:I didn't see police force anywhere, not even near the police station. They are least troubled people here. The traffic police is absent but the traffic is so disciplined that on the city roads & gully roads, which are all two-lane, the cars speed at @100 km/hr speed. Wherever the sign 'STOP' written on road, the vehicles will stop 100%, see & then go. My first surprise was when our van driver who picked up us at airport, stopped twice on the auto-strada, highway, for red signal, when there was no vehicles on the road, no police on the road at 11
p.m. in the night. Punctuality is the next visible part of discipline. Our water-heater was not working, I was told the technician will come at 8.20 a.m. in the morning, he was there at 8.19 a.m. He had to come thrice during next two days, he was there at the said appointed time, 12.30 pm. once, 4.00 pm & next day 8.20 am again. I was envisaging a football fever here, but people talk on football only during lunch time, No other discussions during work time. This is the kind of discipline I had only dreamnt or heard of.

The family ties: The family values are still very deep in Italian psyche. People are seen around with their families, but only on Saturdays / Sundays. I found family photos on my colleagues' PCs / tables. But Most of the old people stay alone. I have heard divorce rate is going up, yet to confirm. This is because in general the girls / ladies / wives here are outspoken & firm. The male generation look softer. Social ties are very weak. People only greet, but they don't talk beyond weather in so called gatherings. People will have only 5 to 6 friends, of which 1 or 2 close. Social gatherings are very few, festa ( festive gathering in city centre open space ) on Week-ends, They dance a lot in pairs (with spouses I suppose) in festas. Thats all, \n\u003cbr\>that is their social touch. People keep to themselves.

The openness: Sex is integral part of our being, I realised it here. I was surprised to see the calendars of naked posed ladies on shop floor / in offices. I thought the GM who was taking us around will try to hide but he was normal. The stores office had two such big calendars with two staff-ladies sitting in that cabin. The calendars were at par with our McDowells bikini calendar which is a big issue in India. But there was no vulgarity in the behaviour noticed, anywhere be it office, be in super-market, be on road. Very descent behaviour. My boss later told me that the thinking in the ladies here is that the good body features will be / are to be appreciated by men same as the chubby 1 year old child is appreciated by anyone. We pick up such a chubby child instantly, O but lady is to be appreciated & not to be picked up. I didn't find ladies wearing vulgur clothes. Very formal clothes in offices. Very few ladies wear miniskirts.

The nature: Very very beautiful country sides. Plush green, many trees, big green fields, professionally harvested. I also noted that there is as less interference as possible in nature. Even in so-called crowded cities, no pollution. No smoke, no horns, absolutely no noise. The houses here are so well laid out, beautifully constructed, clean & photogenic. The waste disposal is the best professionally done, hence everything is clean everwhere.

I don't know how this is possible. I have yet to come across poor people, beggers ... Everybody has a car for him, very few people on bicycle or bike. ( even our company provides a car ( & a well furnished apartment) for all foreign workers here, there are quite a few foreign workers here, mainly from poor parts of Europe, Croatioa, Serbia, Hungary ) How all this was achieved. There are no morchas, dharanas, rasta-rokos or forget there are not even discussions on political issues. I am yet to find anybody who is active socially and I am staying in a area which is quite representative if Italy. Unlike other parts of Europe, even church-service is not part of Italian's social life.

I am managing without tea, chappatis, newspapers & relatives & friends. I am good at adjusting myself. I am enjoying the storms in my mind about how India can be brought at par with such a society.

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