Tata British workers are lazy and unwilling to go the extra mile

Virendra

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British workers are lazy and unwilling to go the extra mile, says Indian billionaire steel chief as he axes 1,500 jobs from UK factories
Steel giant Tata to axe 1,500 jobs from three UK factories | Mail Online

The Indian head of an international steel company has branded British workers 'lazy' and 'unwilling to go the extra mile', a day after his firm announced the axeing of 1,500 staff.

Businessman Ratan Tata said British managers did not compare favourably with their Indian counterparts, blasting staff he had met at Corus and Jaguar Land Rover, two companies Tata bought in recent years.

His comments came after his steel giant firm Tata announced the cutting of 1,500 posts from its three UK factories in economically deprived areas of England.

The Indian firm said it was proposing to close or mothball part of its Scunthorpe plant, putting at risk 1,200 jobs, as well as cutting 300 jobs at its sites on Teesside.

In an interview, Mr Tata said: 'It's a work ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody.'

He told The Times that he had found staff unwilling to participate in meetings after 5pm if they had a train to catch home, even if he had flown in from India.

And he said it was impossible to get hold of workers from either firm at the weekends, starting from 3.30pm on Friday.

He added that in India, 'if you are in a crisis, if it means working to midnight, you would do it.'

Unions said the job cuts amounted to eight per cent of Tata's UK workforce and were a 'devastating blow' to the regions affected.

Tata said its Long Products division had made losses over the past two years, citing a decline in some of its major markets, particularly the construction industry. Demand for structural steel in the UK was only two-thirds of the 2007 level and was not expected to recover fully within the next five years.

Karl-Ulrich Kohler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said: 'We are proposing to take these actions only after going through an inclusive consultative process that involved very careful scrutiny of the Long Products business performance.

'Tata steel is showing its commitment to making this strategy work by earmarking £400 million of investment for this business over the next five years.

'At the same time we are aware that our employees and their families will experience a very unsettling few months as a result of this announcement. We will do everything we can to provide them with support and assistance.

'The continuing weakness in market conditions is one of the main reasons why we are setting out on this difficult course of action.

'Another is the regulatory outlook. EU carbon legislation threatens to impose huge additional costs on the steel industry. Besides, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the level of further unilateral carbon cost rises that the UK Government is planning.

'These measures risk undermining our competitiveness and we must make ourselves stronger in preparation for them.'


Jon Bolton, director of Tata Steel Long Products, said: "As difficult as they are, these steps will help us to shape this business for the future.

Over the longer term we will be able to re-invest in our people, our customers, our equipment and the local communities in which we operate.

'Some of our key markets are not forecast to fully recover from the global economic downturn for a number of years. Other market sectors have changed and our customers are demanding new and different products from us, as well as improved levels of service.

'This investment will improve Long Products' manufacturing capabilities, particularly in the area of plant reliability.

'By closing the Bloom and Billet Mill we will be taking out of production some highly energy-intensive plant that is pretty well obsolete in today's steelmaking world.

'By mothballing Queen Bess furnace, we will match our operations to the new market realities, but retain the flexibility to respond to a market upturn.'

Keith Hazlewood, national officer of the GMB, said: 'The announcement demonstrates what a roller coaster industry the steel industry is. The recent announcement that steel making is to start again on Teesside is directly followed by these 1,500 job losses across Tata's long products division.

'The job losses will impact at Scunthorpe, Teesside and Hartlepool and in the steel mill sites making steel joists used mainly in construction.

'These job losses amount to approximately 8% of the Tata UK workforce. This is a devastating blow to UK steel making, to the local communities and to the UK economy.

'GMB and the other steel unions will work with Tata to mitigate as many job losses as possible, and will oppose any compulsory job losses. GMB will fight job losses in steel industry.'

Michael Leahy, general secretary of Community, said: 'We are, of course, extremely disappointed at the prospect of further job losses, coming as they do on the back of earlier cutbacks.

'However, difficult though the current position is for all concerned, we recognise that this is part of a wider strategic review of the business aimed at securing its long-term viability and access to new markets. To that end, we welcome the commitment to invest £400m over the next five years.

'The key now is for the company to engage the local trade unions in consultation on the way forward. We will be seeking an early meeting to explore all possible means of avoiding any compulsory redundancies.'

Unite's national officer, Paul Reuter, said: 'This is a real blow for the region. Today's announcement highlights just how fragile our economy is and the coalition Government should not be so quick to start talking about growth and recovery.

'Union representatives are currently working with Tata to mitigate the impact of the cuts. Unite has already demanded that there should be no compulsory redundancies and we believe that this should be possible to achieve.

'While the job cuts are very disappointing the investment is to be welcomed and Unite will be working to ensure the money benefits the workers.'

Ian Lucas, Labour's shadow industry minister, said: 'Today's announcement is a hugely worrying sign for industry in the UK, and a blow to the people of Scunthorpe and Teesside.

This seriously calls into question how the Tory-led Government is facing up to the challenges facing the economy, which has flatlined in the last six months instead of moving towards significant growth.

'The public needs to know what measures were taken by Vince Cable to prevent these job losses and to work with the steel industry to plan for the future.

===
Regards,
Virendra
 
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The Messiah

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This is a pleasant news! Hopefully he employs Indians who'll slog there asses till midnight to 'get the job done'.

:)
 

sky

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I work for JLR and find mr tata's comments strange,we will shortly announce profits for 2010 of at least 1billion pound's.Quite a turn around from the 350 million loss of a couple of years ago.

In fact tata motors fantastic share price recovery over the last 2 years is all down to JLR .If mr tata wont's his employees working longer hours then i suggest he opts his companies out of the working time directive. This is an agreement where by workers can work no more then 48 hours per week. Not only that but if you work 7 days a week ,then the following week you can only work 5 days for that week.

At JLR the working time directive is supported by the company and the union. That means you mr tata as well unless you opt us out.

Mr tata's comments seem to come at an same time as 1500 job losses at corus. a weak excuse if there ever was one.
 

The Messiah

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Did anyone read the comments section ? where brits are saying that they should cut aid to us ? like India is surviving because of that measly aid :pound: and which is nothing more than to buy goodwill.

i liked this comment.

If the Indian workers enjoy being slaves then let them have the work. First of all the government should stop all aid to India, and use the money to build a steelworks in direct competition to Ratan and drive him out of buisiness. We should then stop all immigration from India, as we would be cheating them out of a magnificent effecient workforce that will work 24/7 for 20 rupees.
 

Aruni

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Few points here. First, in case you didn't know, a lot of the readers of the Daily Mail tend to be right of centre (to be kind to them), so such views are not that rare amongst that section of the population.

Second, it is true that the British (like most Europeans) like a work-life balance. Most people tend to try and leave for home at a reasonable hour on Fridays. It is not like India where work and life overlap and as a result people often work very long hours indeed. In a way it is understandable because India is a far more cut-throat and competitive environment. Poverty and deprivation means that opportunities are few and far in between, so if you don't put in the hours someone else will. Having said that, people in the City (bankers, lawyers, etc.) do work ridiculous hours, but then I am not feeling too bad because I am sure they are well-rewarded.

Third, Britain would never stop immigration from India not just because some of its sectors need the expertise, but also because of human rights issues- a lot of British citizens have families in India and often bring dependents over, for example. But if it ever did, it would be a massive issue in India. Hundreds of thousands of Indians live here and send hundreds of millions back in remittances, which sustain their families in India. Not something to be flippant about!
 

hit&run

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Why should a worker run extra mile for a non paying parasitic employer.

Running extra mile is social suicide, after 10 years of odd job your vertebral discs are prolapsed causing disability. People are well off with the value of small amount money they earn working weekdays.

If employer wants more productivity then he should use his head for better use of resources available rather doing faulty generalization blaming on employee.

When an employee becomes lazy its a sign of failed management brain of the employer, nothing else.
 

ganesh177

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lol kinda liked this news, payback time.

British workers cannot compete with indian in terms of hard work. Indians are known to make a living out off a thin air, we got no abundabce natural resources and no rich nation behind to make living on it.

Most of the comments on the sites are interesting and positive.

One of the comment.
Finally colonialism has come full circle - An Indian boss of a British company firing British workers.... and telling bthem that they are lazy... How the world has changed!!!!


 
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Virendra

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"In India, "if you are in a crisis, if it means working to midnight, you would do it. The worker in JLR seems to be willing to do that, the management is not"
Quoting him again, as some people here have taken it as over generalization from Tata. I would agree also that the title of the article was misleading by using the term "workers".
He's probably targeting the typically political middle management which is never seen slogging it out late night hours (even in India) :mad2:

Regards,
Virendra
 

pankaj nema

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People in USA waste a lot of time in and on relationship issues . They have messy and complicated personal lives

Also things like Music , films and sports ;Including local silly tournaments .

And then they just booze and dance in night clubs

So where is the time to go the extra mile
 

Armand2REP

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Tata Steel has run the UK steel industry into the ground. Ever since they took over CORUS, UK steel output has plummeted thanks to asset sales and layoffs. They produced 15 million before the takeover to only 8.5 million today.
 

Blackwater

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we Indians are brought up to do hard work and overtime. On the other hand British people are brought up in easy atmosphere and it started with easy schooling and uni,after that in jobs from Mon to Fri 9 to 5 mentality. Where as our hardship started during schooling and uni and then we struggle to get jobs than stay till 8 or 9 pm working on sat sometimes meeting clients on Sundays, to save our jobs.

The main reason for that, there is no social security in India, where as in UK ,if u loose your job u get benefits from govt . You and your family will not struggle.
 

Oracle

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Britishers balance their work & social life very maturely. There is no reason why British people should be expected to work overtime. Hire more people, pay well. Why expect people to burn their ar$e$ for you?
 

amitkriit

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Tata Steel has run the UK steel industry into the ground. Ever since they took over CORUS, UK steel output has plummeted thanks to asset sales and layoffs. They produced 15 million before the takeover to only 8.5 million today.
Reason being local demand going down and hitting the rock bottom. May be its just a symptom, Tatas are banking on wrong people to run the show. Instead of laying off the "workers", Tata must revamp the upper and middle management, Tata is complaining about managers and not workers?
 

Aruni

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People in USA waste a lot of time in and on relationship issues . They have messy and complicated personal lives

Also things like Music , films and sports ;Including local silly tournaments .

And then they just booze and dance in night clubs

So where is the time to go the extra mile
I am sorry, this may be slightly off topic, but how can people sanely express such views? We are after all, all educated and supposedly fair-minded. This is the kind of bigoted statement that makes us look as bad as the racist thugs that we complain about all the time.

Indians have perfect relationships? How about the husband working until 11 every night and spending 13-14 hours with his colleagues and ignoring the bored wife at home? How about the wife relying on the unemployed neighbour to satisfy her because the husband is never around? What about the husband cheating on his wife with his secretary at the office? What about parents being ignored and left to rot (given that India has no social security)?

These are issues that are commonplace in urban middle class India. How would you feel if someone took sporadic examples and generalised about all Indians? Rubbish, absolute rubbish.

If someone cares about sorting out his/her relationship, what is so wrong in it? Caring about music, sports, films, etc. is bad? This is ridiculous. The worse option is not caring about what is happening at home and slogging at work like a slave. It is called BEING HUMAN.

Yes, Indians have a propensity to work harder than most people in the West and that is due to our difficult upbringing and struggling circumstances. But sometimes, in order to succeed, you need to be able to take a step back and think about wider strategic issues rather than simply doing one thing, and moving on to the next, and the next, and the next....
 

mayfair

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Naive and illadvised of Tata to come up with such statements. Imagine the outcry if the boot was on the other foot?
 

nrj

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Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover records 1.1 billion pound profit in FY-11: Report

Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover will this week unveil record annual profits exceeding 1 billion pounds, completing the luxury car maker's remarkable recovery from the depths of recession, media reported today.

JLR is forecast to declare 1.1 billion pounds profit for the year to March 31, compared with a gain of 32 million pounds last year and a 281 million pounds loss in the first 10 months after Tata took over, the 'Sunday Telegraph' reported.

The record profit comes just two years after the car maker sought Government support and warned of a "national emergency" in the industry as sales tumbled.

According to the report, the turnaround has been driven by rapidly growing sales in emerging markets such as India and China where the cars are status symbols for the growing middle classes - and investment from Tata in new models such as the Range Rover Evoque.

A JLR source said the results will be "extremely good" and that the British car maker, which employs 17,000 persons, is the "star" performer for Tata.

The results are expected to be presented as part of the company's annual results on Thursday.

The previous record profit for JLR is 300 million pounds the company made in 2007, the last year under Ford .

JLR made a net profit of 734 million pounds in the nine months to December 31 and sales have continued to grow since then, led by Land Rover.

In March, more Land Rovers were sold in the UK than any other month in the company's history.

Land Rover also secured record March sales in China and India, with sales up 33 per cent and 61 per cent, while Jaguar enjoyed its best month in India as well as a 70 per cent rise in Russian sales and a 49 per cent rise in Germany.

Overall, sales in March rose by 6 per cent for JLR and 13 per cent in the first quarter.
Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover records 1.1 billion pound profit in FY-11: Report - The Economic Times
 

Armand2REP

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Reason being local demand going down and hitting the rock bottom. May be its just a symptom, Tatas are banking on wrong people to run the show. Instead of laying off the "workers", Tata must revamp the upper and middle management, Tata is complaining about managers and not workers?
The numbers don't add up, EU steel demand dropped 27% after the financial crisis. It has since recovered 17% of that. Both the UK and Netherlands have about a 40% drop in production. ArcelorMittal has managed to recover 40% of lost production in France after the crisis yet Tata cannot in the UK and Netherlands. Many in the UK said the Tata takeover was a vendetta to get back at the symbolism of UK imperialism, now they took the name of CORUS off everything and run UK steel into the ground. Not to mention calling them a bunch of lazy slobs...
 

Tolaha

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The numbers don't add up, EU steel demand dropped 27% after the financial crisis. It has since recovered 17% of that. Both the UK and Netherlands have about a 40% drop in production. ArcelorMittal has managed to recover 40% of lost production in France after the crisis yet Tata cannot in the UK and Netherlands. Many in the UK said the Tata takeover was a vendetta to get back at the symbolism of UK imperialism, now they took the name of CORUS off everything and run UK steel into the ground. Not to mention calling them a bunch of lazy slobs...
You cannot be really serious! Someone has spent shiploads of cash, just to get back at UK for imperialism! :hail:

If we can get over the sensational headlines, what we see is that Ratan Tata has said the management was not upto mark. And if you read the stats that you yourself have posted, do you still have doubts on the management quality!?
 

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