Consultation and Notice for Significant Changes

ITC's core values support an employee engagement process that aligns its employees with a shared vision and purpose in the belief that every individual brings a different perspective and capability to the team. ITC thus harnesses the creative potential of all its employees by promoting a culture of partnership to unleash relevant synergies amongst different groups of employees.

Policy: All major changes in operations, involving work processes, manning norms and other productivity linked issues are implemented after discussions with the employees and the recognised unions at each location.

Implementation: Business plans are shared with employees at all Units through a series of communication meetings, and through the intranet portals. Unionised employees at the concerned Units are informed of all major changes well in advance through their representatives.

The responsibility for the implementation of the policy rests with the Unit's Human Resources Department in the case of unionised employees and with the concerned Divisional Management Committees for other employees.

The employees are given enough time to consider the implications of change and an opportunity to discuss their apprehensions, if any, with the management. The Policy is actualised through consultative meetings with representatives of employees, culminating in joint minutes/agreements.

Monitoring & Auditing: Compliance with the Policy is regularly monitored by the Unit Head.

Compliance during 2005-06: During 2005-06, nine long-term agreements (LTAs) were signed with the elected representatives of employees across different businesses. These LTAs covered major changes in operations, practices and technology and changes in compensation that were mutually agreed upon
between the Company and the Unions. For all LTAs, management proposals included operational changes being envisaged and were submitted to the Unions well before bi-partite discussions were initiated. Apart from LTAs, joint minutes are signed to deal with issues that arise in the interim and, in all such cases, management proposals were presented to the Unions at joint meetings, which formed the basis for the bi-partite discussions that followed. The final joint minutes that were signed contained explicit references to the manner in which the consensus positions were reached.