Labour welfare relates to taking care of the well-being of workers by employers, trade unions, governmental and non-governmental institutions and agencies. Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages. Welfare helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions, creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the workers and their families.
According to ILO, labour welfare can be defined as a term, which is understood to include such services, facilities, and amenities as may be established in or in the vicinity of undertakings to enable the persons employed in them to perform their work in healthy, congenial surroundings and to provide them with amenities conducive to good health and high morale.
Oxford dictionary- “Labour welfare is efforts to make life worth living for workmen.” The need for providing such services and facilities arise from the social responsibility of industries, a desire for upholding democratic values and a concern for employees. Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages.
Welfare helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. The welfare measures need not be in monetary terms only but in any kind/forms. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions, creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the workers and their families. Labour welfare entails all those activities of employer, which are directed towards providing the employees with certain facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries. Labour welfare implies providing better work conditions for example, proper lighting, cleanliness, low noise, etc. and amenities viz. recreation, housing, education, etc. Arthur James Todd- “Labour welfare means anything done for the comfort and improvement, intellectual and social, of the employees over and above the wages paid which is not a necessity of the Industry.”
The term “Welfare” refers to a staff of living of an individual or a group in the context of his physical, social and psychic environment. The concept of labour welfare has undergone considerable change. Social and economic development of the country has to be towards the enactment of labour welfare and labour protective legislations. An individual’s adjustment to his environment is required for his existence in the industrial world. A workers is paid for the types of his services but payment depends on nature of work, his efficiency, capacity of the industry to pay and significance of his work in that particular industry. A worker has to maintain balance at workplace. He has to adjust with the physical working conditions as well as with type of supervision, co-workers, etc.
The acceptance, respect, goodwill, attention and recognition, which a worker gets from his work group, community, family and neighbourhood forms an integral part of the modern concept of labour welfare. Capacity of the worker to satisfy his physiological needs like food, clothing and shelter from his pay packet refers to physical concept of labour welfare.
