ILPC 2027

 This paper attempts to understand workplace relations and power dynamics in the gold jewellery making industry in Kerala, India. The socio-cultural significance of gold, the remittance-fuelled Kerala economy and the increasing intensity and scale of gold jewellery retailing within the state have prompted an interesting exploration of the working of the industry. The economic reforms in the early 1990s have had a direct impact on production and distribution networks in the industry. These changes forced a restructuring of the labour market. Deregulation, heightened competition and inflow of massive investment into the industry led to a demand for more workers. As a result, the industry witnessed an increasing use of migrants, women and children as workers. The employment of such a heterogeneous group of workers has resulted in conflicting relations between capital and labour on the shop floor.

Power relations in a workplace are dynamic, subject to much discussion in the workplace. Marxian labour process studies regard power to be negative and inhibiting in the workplace. Constricting physical structures and coercive direct control often result in inhibiting migrants and contains resistance in the workplace. The Foucaultian concept of the ‘Panoptican’ is used to understand how physical structures can intimidate and force workers to stick on to a particular kind of regimentation. Insights from the field demonstrate that while in some workplaces workers were constantly monitored, in others, self-management was the norm. Units solely operating with the help of migrants also closely observe the movement of the workers. Certain units have electronic surveillance systems, which subject migrants to the disciplinary gaze. ‘Trust’ is an important attribute to the entry of workers in the industry. Only after earning the trust of the employer, can the migrant worker find another job in a different unit.

Given the numerous set of actors in the workplace and the complexities to be unearthed, the   labour process theoretical framework is considered most resourceful for this work. This framework is used because it essentially identifies the presence of an unequal relationship between capital and labour, and tries to demonstrate how this relationship restrains, shapes and redesigns the workplace. 

The empirical data of this paper is based on the findings and observations gathered through an intensive fieldwork conducted during a course of three years from 2010-2013 in the gold jewellery making industry in Trissur and Kozhikode (erstwhile Calicut) districts in Kerala. This involved workplace observations and in-depth interviews with different stakeholders in the industry. This work also relies on a larger data set, the Inter-State Migrant Survey conducted by the Centre for Development Studies in 2012 that collected data on migrant workers in the gold jewellery making from four districts of Kerala (Trissur, Trivandrum, Ernakulam and Kozhikode). Subsequent information on the industry was obtained through secondary sources that included reports of the World Gold Council (WGC), National Skill Development Council (NSDC), Export Import Bank (EXIM Bank), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Micro Small or Medium Enterprises (MSME).