IIM Kozhikode sets up think tank to help workers shift from informal to formal economy

KOZHIKODE: The Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIMK) has announced the setting up of an an interdisciplinary think tank -- Centre for Employment Relations and Labour Studies (CERLS) -- that would help in the transition of workers and economically weaker sections from the informal to formal economy.

The institute's director, Professor Debashis Chatterjee, said CERLS would be a centre of excellence at IIMK for creating sustainable organisations through cooperative employment relations. "The larger aim of this centre would be to mobilise ideas from fellow academia, thought leaders, government, and corporations to prevent informalisation of formal jobs while championing sustainable enterprises.

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Additionally, the centre would work closely with organisations to maintain fair labor standards," Chatterjee said in a statement issued by the institute. CERLS would be headed by Manoranjan Dhal, a professor in the Human Resource Management area at IIMK, the statement said. Dhal is quoted in the statement as having said that the increasing technological encroachment in work has led to a monumental gap in the quality of life between sections of the working class.

"Further, mass downsizing, precarious employment conditions for the non-standard workers, and amplification of grievances of the migrant labour, construction workers as well as gig workers have increased in recent years. These are the very reasons that propelled the thought of establishing this centre," he said.

CERLS plans to conduct a regular labour conference every year to deliberate on labour issues in the nation and the first one is scheduled to take place in January next year.