What are the remarkable DIFFERENCES between the job markets of a third world country like India and developed countries like New Zealand (and Australia)?
1) Labour laws are strictly adhered to in New Zealand, but barely in India.
2) In New Zealand, employer companies as well as employees believe in “Work-Life Balance” which means no one is forced to work beyond the fixed hours on per day and per week basis (35-40 hours per week) as a full-time employee. It is considered as unethical if your employer does not give you enough time for your family life and/or yourself. It is believed that if an employee is forced to work for indefinite hours (as is usual practice in Indian private and corporate sectors), it is a sign of imbalance in employee’s life that prevents him from giving optimal output at work place. Quite strange for Indians in India who are routinely compelled to work every week for 48 to 72 hours or beyond, without any extra monetary or tangible/intangible benefit.
3) After applying for a job in NZ, if a jobseeker calls up the prospective employer (usually after a week or two of applying), it is considered as jobseeker’s expression of interest and enthusiasm towards the vacant position that shows his initiative. It also distinguishes that candidate from the pack of other applicants. Conversely, if you take similar initiative in India, the prospective employer/management or recruitment agency will consider that you are a desperate jobseeker with strange behaviour. Knowing this allows them to ignore you, exploit you in salary bargain (if called for an interview) or even mistreat you with arrogance if you ring them up.
4) Indians think and presume there is no discrimination in India whereas Indian students undergo racial assaults and are discriminated in Australia. But in fact, there is more discrimination in India than in Australia or New Zealand. Many won’t be able to digest this, but the fact is – in India the candidates are selected and jobs are offered on the basis of marital status, date of birth, age, gender, caste, surname, relatives, region, religion, favouritism/nepotism, current salary and what not. Senior citizens have witnessed that this kind of ‘approach’ was not prevailing in post-independence era for at least two decades until 1970’s. In New Zealand, no job site or an employer asks a jobseeker (prospective employee) to provide any such information (gender is optional and is for information purpose only) – no matter even if you are a migrant. These things are mandatorily asked in India. WHY? Because by looking at your date of birth or salary (CTC), an employer can reject or shortlist you – irrespective of your ability to do or perform a job efficiently or inefficiently. For example, if the male boss of a company is looking for a personal secretary, he prefers to choose only the females in the age group of 18 to 25 (most preferred age group) who are unmarried. Indian laws allow or facilitate to choose an employee on the basis of marital status, age, and gender – as we have seen in this example. Similarly, an experienced person in the age of 35 or above is often rejected from the bunch of CVs by the recruitment agencies because of ‘mature age’ unless he is a top notch professional who has been headhunted. If a candidate is out of job for a considerable time due to any valid reason, or has work experience of a Gulf country and returns to India, s/he will face tremendous problems in re-employment in India. The prospective employers try to exploit such candidates by offering a lower position or a considerably low salary in a situation when there is no dearth of jobs in job market in the liberalized and reformed Indian economy. The recruiting agencies or prospective employers invariably ask for the current salary (CTC) which remains zero in such situation. In New Zealand, asking your current salary (CTC) is considered as discourteous. Many NZ employers – including multinationals and big corporate like ‘Fonterra’ have their online application formats where there is no question about applicant’s current salary. Instead, there are expected salary range options to choose from. It does not matter if a candidate has no job at the time of application. It won’t be an excuse to exploit a jobseeker when it comes to deciding salary. But in India, employers and recruitment agencies have right to discriminate on the basis of factors such as age, gender, marital status, current salary, and many such factors.
Discriminating Jobsite
Recently, I have come across a job portal launched by a noted HR agency, ABC Consultants. They have created a milestone to innovatively discriminate applicants by restricting most jobseekers on the basis of their current salary. So, if your current salary (CTC) is less than Rs. 10 lakhs (1 million) per annum, you cannot register on this portal and upload your details. Instead of functioning as a job portal for senior managers with over 10 or 15 years of experience level, HeadHonchos tries to discriminate on the basis of salary. Consider a senior manager who has just completed an executive MBA or attained a similar qualification from an IIM or XLRI and seeking a higher salary (Rs. 10 lakhs or more) on a better position in a suitable company. But if his present or last salary was, for instance, below 10 lakhs, he is disqualified to register on the basis of his salary although with an upgraded education, he deserves Rs. 10 lakhs or higher salary. HeadHunchos could therefore be the right portal for many such jobseekers. If Steve Jobs (ex-CEO, Apple) intends to apply to a company (operating in India) through HeadHunchos, he will definitely be disqualified because his salary (according to media reports) was only Rs. 49 ($1) – much less than Rs. 10 lacs. Isn’t it bizarre to witness such condition in modern India that shows an open form of discrimination? Isn’t it an arrogant stance in place of an intelligent business move? Inspired by such ideas, tomorrow the job sites may start restricting jobseekers’ registration on the basis of gender, religion or material status such as owners of luxury cars (Mercedes, BMW, Rolls Royce) and villas and so forth. In New Zealand, this is unlawful because that is a developed country having a developed mindset and society. But in India, the meaning of development is perhaps limited only to “infrastructural” and share market developments or riding an expensive car!! Isn’t it SHAMEFUL for India and Indians to allow and accept such things??!! Isn’t it astonishing to find that millions of jobseekers (who are all educated ones) do not even realize that such acts or concepts are the forms of discrimination? If you do not fill up your date of birth or gender while filling up the resume information on any Indian job site (including the leading sites), it will neither upload your profile nor register you. Isn’t it time to have a deep thought on such discriminatory issues that Indians in India are carrying on for so many decades without applying their minds?
With the technological innovation and developments in India, the thinking and attitude of the people and society at large are shrinking instead of growing and expanding. On the name of ‘market segmentation’, the Indian businesses are trying to fragment the society or market on the basis of “approaches, nexus and nepotism”. Consequently the principle of “Equal Opportunity Employer” (practised in the USA and other developed world) is unheard in India in spite of its claim of the largest democracy in the world. Before blaming other countries and suffering from a superiority complex or syndrome, Indians should have a self-check. One wonders why Indian labour/job market is not considered as equivalent to that in New Zealand or other developed world. The answer lies somewhere in the discriminatory practices in Indian labour market.
~Gunjan Gupta, Esq.
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