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  GLF Joint Programmes  


Joint Programmes is another of GLF’s special features that has caught the imagination of workers and managements alike. Joint Programmes include as participants both workers and managerial personnel who then get an opportunity to discuss freely and interact between and amongst themselves on key issues related to their work situation and environment. The Joint Programmes are simple ways to deal with the many irritants that crop up widening the gap between the workers and the management. Over a period of last five years, GLF has organised several Joint Programmes. These  programmes covered themes such as economic viability of an enterprise, industrial relations, participative management, wages & welfare, production & productivity, absenteeism and quality of life. The programmes are like open forums wherein both parties can vent their grievances against each other in a cordial atmosphere and seek a viable solution.

  SPECIALISED PROGRAMMES
         Changing industrial environment has given rise to a complex pattern of industrial relations. It has also required trade unions to play more specialised functions. GLF has been addressing itself to these new felt needs of  trade unions. This has led its calendar of programmes to include specialised courses on personal growth and group dynamics, basic economics, health & safety, negotiation techniques, supervisor’s development, application of labour laws, team building & team work, participative management and participation of workers in joint forums/committees. The need for these specialized programmes is to make workers adept in particular and specific areas of industrial relation and in the changing industrial economy.

  COUPLE S’ PROGRAMMES
           
This is a new programme introduced to target the workers’ families.  Both the husband and wife together participate to learn more about family  life, family welfare, community in which they live  and the society to which they belong. The programme has been well recognized and appreciated  as it is  the first of its kind in the country.   The main thrust of this programme is to improve the quality of  life of the workers and their families. This programme has aroused much enthusiasm amongst workers. It allows workers and their families to have a get together, releasing themselves from their  day to day life and talk at length at leisure the problems of their household. Such programmes are often conducted at a nominal cost as compared to other programmes run by the Institute.

  TRAINING OF TRAINERS (TOTs)
       
 To run and expand workers’ education programmes successfully has meant the need for an increasing number of qualified and dedicated manpower. GLF has been making continuous efforts to train band of workers having talent and potentiality in the art of  teaching and communicating methods and techniques of workers education. Training of Trainers (TOTs) are an important part of GLF’s programme structure. The TOTs are expected to meet GLF’s search for talents and be the messengers of GLF’s vision of workers’ education. 

  WOMEN’S PROGRAMME
          
Apart from the programmes and the curriculum, as mentioned, in recent years, programmes addressing the needs of women workers have been introduced. In mining industry for example, the law does not permit a woman to work in underground mines due to the dangers and physical rigours that such a work entails. Women therefore primarily work as auxiliary staff such as nurses, typists, clerks and teachers. Many a times therefore their role may seem peripheral and not effective enough to directly influence the movement. But GLF believes women are as much an integral part of the workers’ movement as men is and a constructive move towards their education is therefore, equally, a necessity. One is happy to note the response which women’s programmes have generated. Our Women Development Centres in Dhanbad  played and have been playing an important role in addressing and reaching women nearly at their doorsteps. Courses have also been initiated to involve the women in workmen’s home.

         Women have been an integral part of GLF’s programmes. And over the years our women programmes have been receiving tremendous response from women in not only organising the same but also in terms of participating as well. No doubt, as compared to their male participants, women’s participation may seem marginal. The slow and steady increase in number of women  participants and also corresponding increase in the number of programmes conducted for however points to the task ahead of GLF. With women being articulative of their problems and taking keen interest in various aspects of working environment, no management or workers’ union can simply ignore their formidable presence.
 

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