The Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society Ltd ... - NCUI

THE URALUNGAL LABOUR CONTRACTCOOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD. (ULCCS)A Cooperative Success Storyin Infrastructure DevelopmentSince 1925Clip

Outlines of the Presentation‣ Profile of the Society‣ Cooperative Values and Principles‣ Cooperative Governance‣ Business sustainability‣ Challenges and problems faced by the society and interventions initiated withreference to goals or objectives .‣ Keys to success and its emulation elsewhere.‣ Lessons from the success story.‣ Benefits to the members and other beneficiaries.‣ Long term sustainability of the model with reference to social, financial andenvironmental lfactor.‣ Why the two practices are the ‘best practices’ ?‣ Results of intervention and its impact to the ULCCS growth and development.‣ Cooperative Social Responsibility bl (CSR)

‣ India, as the second most populated country andone of the fastest growing economies in theworld, is highly hl concentrating ti in building civililinfrastructure especially in roads, communicationsystems & utilities.‣ Almost 52% of the total unorganised workers areemployed as construction labourers. There arehardly any regulation ensuring issues concerningsustainability of their livelihood, earnings andworking condition.‣ In order to ensure development with growth, thismassive work of nation building should percolateto the grass root levels giving a fair share of thisexercise to the labour available in Indian villages.‣ Labour Contract Cooperative Societies play a vitalrole in making these opportunities of growthavailable to labour masses.‣ The Uralungal Labour Contract CooperativeSociety (ULCCS Ltd.) an 86 year old constructionsociety hailing from a rural pocket in Malabarregion in North Kerala had proven its mettle byestablishing a niche of its own in theinfrastructure development in Kerala.

Profile of the Society‣ The Uralungal l labour Contract t Co-operative Society Ltd. (ULCCS Ltd) is aconstruction society Estd: in 1925 and registered under co-operative societies act.‣ The society head quartered at Madappally in Vatakara Thaluk in Kozhikode Dist.‣ Today, the society has to its credit long 85 years of meritorious survival and tops thelist of best working Labour Contract Co-operatives in India.‣ More than 2000 workers including 750 members and about 1749 non-members, areengaging daily.‣ It needs no reiteration that this is the best labourers Co-operative Society in the stateexecuting the contract works from the Public Work Department, National Highways,Water Authority, Harbour Engineering and District-Block-Grama Panchayats etc.strictly adhering to time limit and quality requirements and standards of the work.‣ Today, the society has to its credit long 81 years of meritorious survival and it tops thelist of best working Labour Contract t Co-operatives in India.

Cooperative Governance‣ ULCCS has a well-definedorganizational structure toexecute the decisions of the boardand a consultation wing toassociate in making the policydecisions.ManagementBoard of Directors‣ The Board is elected an interval ofPresident5 years and including presidentconsist of ten directorsSecretaryDirector‣ All the directors need to haveworked as construction ti workerand are paid daily wages and notsalaried. All the ten directors workfull time and each director isresponsible for certain no. ofdivision or worksite. Roads Bridges BuildingsFinance Administration Project Management

Cooperative Governance Contd..‣ The BOD meets every day and collectively take decisions and manages the work‣ BOD also has a paid secretary who is appointed with the approval of StateCooperative Department and act as head of office.‣ Members are expected to attend and actively participate in the monthly generalbody meeting‣ According to the norms, members repeatedly absenting from the monthly meetingsare panelized by detecting various for May‐day, if paid holiday for the membersotherwise.‣ BOD exercises strict discipline by punishing defaulty members to work inquarrying or suspending from work for few days.‣ Workers are expected to adhere to norms like maintaining peaceful atmosphere atworksite‣ BODhaspowertosuspendthemembers butitcannotremovethemembers.Onlygeneral body has right to remove the member‣ The society highly emphasize on establishment of professional governance startingfrom policy formulation – execution till bill collection.‣ For various policy decisions it takes consultation well known professional bodiesincluding Indian Institute of Management, NIIT Kozhikode.

Membership Education andParticipation‣The members participate in almost allkey decision making process.‣Along with regular board meetings of thedirectors/executors there are workmen’smeeting, technical review meetings andAnnual General Body Meeting to put forthevery key policy decision for participationfrom the members in number of votes.‣The awarding of membership isrecognition to a worker in the society.‣Members attend cooperative educationprogramme and various training &exposure programme from time to time.ULCC manual labours earn higher wagesthan lowest grade employee of the Govt.Every members gets a bonus twice ayear, medical allowances, gratuity andprovident fund contribution.

‣ During the eight decades of its existence ULCCS Ltd. haddeveloped strong systems within the organisation to completethe projects in time, cost without compromising quality ofwork.‣ ULCCS Ltd. Is an ISO 9001:2008 Organisation.‣ It has sophisticated construction equipments to complete theprojects effectively.‣ Strong SOP;‣ Strict Quality Control;‣ Input Process Output;t‣ Quality is the hallmark their functioning.Clip

Business sustainability“Co-operatives are a reminder to the international community that it ispossible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.”- Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary GeneralThe Paid up share capital of the society at present is Rs.3422 Lakhs which includesRs.173 Lakhs from individual members and Rs.3249 Lakhs from the State Government.The society even after providing all the statutory dues and labourers welfareexpenses is able to hit remarkable growth rate in profits and the total asset base asshown in the table given below :Financial Performance of ULCCS Ltd.(Values in Lakhs)Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11Turnover(work carried out) 4326.80 4941.08 5281.29 7260.04 7654.88 11795.82Gross Profit 663.43 760.26 1176.56 1662.3 2004.54 1544.59Total Asset 1368.13 1627.57 2420.08 3629.09 12454.72 14004.96

Business sustainability Contd..However, the focus is not just making profit but also fulfilling social development byproviding work and livelihood of the locality people‣ Provide stable employment to its worker rather than to make profit‣ Engage in rehabilitation and relief works during natural calamities‣ Schooling for workers children‣ Women empowerment programmes in the worksite‣ Providing short term skill development programmes‣ Providing health awareness programmes‣ Financial i Support for patients t and workers suffering from terminal diseases‣ Construction of Adivashi houses of good quality‣ Providing food, cloth and shelter at the time of natural calamity like flood,Coastal Erosion‣ Undertakes many projects even when profit is to low if it is beneficial to themember.

Cooperative Values and Principlesi The society is manned and managed by the labourers based on strong cooperativevalues and principles.The society is imbibe by all the cooperative values and ethics likeSelf-help and Self-responsibility is the hallmark of the societyDemocracy – Election is held every five years and there is a active participation ofthemember in general body and other committeeEquality – no matter how much money a member invests in their share account,they still have one voteEquity – Society carry business in a way that is fair and unbiasedSolidarity – IT share interests and common purposes with all members and otherco-operatives.Ethical valuesOpenness , Honesty, Social responsibility and Caring for othersAll the members of the Society construction worker and entire system andprocessors of the society is based on the principle of thrift and mutual help andstrong disciplinary rules and procedure.

1. Cooperative Excellence through Decision makers being the ExecutorsULCCS has in its policy that the Board of Directors should also involve in the projectexecution. This is derived from the rule that only workers have the right to be in theDirector Board. This ensures uniqueness in compliance of the decision from the Board atvarious execution levels. This system is a derivative of cooperative principles and cangreatly help in taking greater leaps in a chosen endeavor.2. Cooperative Efficiency through Collective authority responsibility sharing to the lowestsegmentEach worker, at his own level is free to take decisions on the site subject to already setprinciples and procedures of the society. This enables a worker to hone leadership skillsand have authority-responsibility match at his own level.Both these practices make joint responsibility from bottom to top management which inturn improves contribution and efficiency by several folds.

Keys to success and its emulationelsewhere‣ Trust is the single most factors to the success of intervention.‣ Collective leadership‣ Joint decision making‣ Collective Authorty‣ Mutual Help and Self-Help and Solitary‣ Concern for CommunitiesLessons from the success story‣ The system is based on cooperative principles of mutual benefit,togetherness, collective authority and responsibility sharing.‣ Since the decision makers are from the working class, efficiencyin management increases by several folds.

‣ Strong financial base of the society‣ Financial benefits to the members‣ Growing member based‣ Fulfillment of social objectives‣ Quality and Time bound completion of project‣ Approximately 2000 people comprising labourers, Engineers,technician and administrative staff having the employment andlivelihood‣ Members worked daily and paid are weekly wages more than Govt.wagesIN THE 87 YEARS ULCCS HAS NOT LOST EVEN A SINGLE DAY OFWORK DUE LABOUR PROBLEM

Completed Projects: 3302 On Going Projects: 300Major Completed ProjectsCalicut Bypass – 33 CroresCRF Road works – 15 CroresNH Realignment – 12 CroresEdasherrykadavu Bridge – 8 Crores

ULCCS Future Mega ProjectULCCS plans to venture into setting up of Cyber Park at Kozhikode co venturing with theGovernment of Kerala. This upcoming project is aimed at creating job opportunities for thethird generation members who are educated and seek jobs in their related field ofexpertise. Through this project, the society also aims at bringing in development in thedistrict in which it is situatedProposal to build a world class Special Economic Zone (Project Cost – Rs. 600 Crores) atKozhikode to provide high quality work space for IT and ITES companies. On completionthis sector specific SEZ will have a total built‐up area of 31,00,000 Sq. ft. to house companiesin IT/ITES business.

‣ The society was founded aiming at social, cultural, financial and culturalupliftment of its members. The society had been successful in attainingthisobjective ti to a great extentt‣ ULCCS had grown as the biggest Labour Contract Society by providingdirect employment to over 2000 workers from rural areas.‣ ULCCS is a good example of how 23 crores constructionction labourers canbenefit by organising themselves into cooperatives‣ ULCCS is a glaring example of workers own, run cooperative society,has a most favored status for promptness and quality work.

Presented by :Dr. Dinesh, Chief Executive,National Cooperative Union of India, New Delhi (INDIA)Email : dineshncui@india.coop