THE URALUNGAL LABOUR CONTRACT COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD. ( ULCCS )

1. THE URALUNGALLABOUR CONTRACT COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD. (ULCCS) A Cooperative Success Story in Infrastructure Development Since 1925 Clip

2. Outlines of the Presentation • Role of NCUI in promoting cooperatives • Profile of the Society • Cooperative Values and Principles • Cooperative Governance • Business sustainability • Challenges and problems faced by the society and interventions initiated with reference 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 and environmental factor. • Why the two practices are the ‘best practices’ ? • Results of intervention and its impact to the ULCCS growth and development. • Cooperative Social Responsibility (CSR)

3. NCUI is an apex organization of the Indian Cooperative Movement in the country, the NCUI is committed to lend dynamism and vibrancy to the cooperative sector in the twenty first century. To make the voice of Cooperation as strong as ever is NCUI's supreme motto. • Three strategic objectives: • Promote and develop the cooperative movement in India. • To educate, guide and assist the people in their efforts to build up and expand the cooperate sector. • To serve as an exponent of cooperative opinion in accordance with cooperative principles. • The organization engages in: • Expressing opinion on matters of cooperative policy. • Organizing National Cooperative Congress, cooperative seminars, meetings and conferences, etc. as sensitization measures for propagating the cause of Cooperation. • Organizing cooperative education and training programmes and conducting research. • Selecting delegates for participation in the international, national and state conferences and collaborating with international organization involved in cooperative development. • Publicizing the achievements of cooperatives through print and electronic media and maintaining an information bureau and a library.

4. Introduction • India, as the second most populated country and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, is highly concentrating in building civil infrastructure especially in roads, communication systems & utilities. • Almost 52% of the total unorganised workers are employed as construction labourers. There are hardly any regulation ensuring issues concerning sustainability of their livelihood, earnings and working condition. • In order to ensure development with growth, this massive work of nation building should percolate to the grass root levels giving a fair share of this exercise to the labour available in Indian villages. • Labour Contract Cooperative Societies play a vital role in making these opportunities of growth available to labour masses. • The UralungalLabour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS Ltd.) an 86 year old construction society hailing from a rural pocket in Malabar region in North Kerala had proven its mettle by establishing a niche of its own in the infrastructure development in Kerala.

5. Profile of the Society • The Uralungal labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd. (ULCCS Ltd) is a construction 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 the list of best working Labour Contract Co-operatives in India. • More than 2000 workers including 750 members and about 1749 non-members, are engaging daily. • It needs no reiteration that this is the best labourers Co-operative Society in the state executing 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 the list of best working Labour Contract Co-operatives in India.

6. Cooperative Governance • ULCCS has a well-defined organizational structure to execute the decisions of the board and a consultation wing to associate in making the policy decisions. • The Board is elected an interval of 5 years and including president consist of ten directors • All the directors need to have worked as construction worker and are paid daily wages and not salaried. All the ten directors work full time and each director is responsible for certain no. of division or worksite. Management Board of Directors President Secretary Director Finance Administration Project Management Roads Bridges Buildings

7. 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 State Cooperative Department and act as head of office. Members are expected to attend and actively participate in the monthly general body meeting According to the norms, members repeatedly absenting from the monthly meetings are panelized by detecting various for May-day, if paid holiday for the members otherwise. BOD exercises strict discipline by punishing defaulty members to work in quarrying or suspending from work for few days. Workers are expected to adhere to norms like maintaining peaceful atmosphere at worksite BOD has power to suspend the members but it cannot remove the members. Only general body has right to remove the member The society highly emphasize on establishment of professional governance starting from policy formulation – execution till bill collection. For various policy decisions it takes consultation well known professional bodies including Indian Institute of Management, NIIT Kozhikode.

8. Membership Education and Participation • The members participate in almost all key decision making process. • Along with regular board meetings of the directors/executors there are workmen’s meeting, technical review meetings and Annual General Body Meeting to put forth every key policy decision for participation from the members in number of votes. • The awarding of membership is recognition to a worker in the society. • Members attend cooperative education programme and various training & exposure programme from time to time. ULCC manual labours earn higher wages than lowest grade employee of the Govt. Every members gets a bonus twice a year, medical allowances, gratuity and provident fund contribution.

9. Fair Trade and Quality Adherence During the eight decades of its existence ULCCS Ltd. had developed strong systems within the organisation to complete the projects in time, cost without compromising quality of work. ULCCS Ltd. Is an ISO 9001:2008 Organisation. It has sophisticated construction equipments to complete the projects effectively. Strong SOP; Strict Quality Control Input-Process-Output; Quality is the hallmark their functioning. Clip

10. Business sustainability “Co-operatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.” - Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General The Paid up share capital of the society at present is Rs.3422 Lakhs which includes Rs.173 Lakhs from individual members and Rs.3249 Lakhs from the State Government. The society even after providing all the statutory dues and labourers welfare expenses is able to hit remarkable growth rate in profits and the total asset base as shown in the table given below : Financial Performance of ULCCS Ltd. (Values in Lakhs)

11. Business sustainability Contd.. However, the focus is not just making profit but also fulfilling social development by providing 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 Support for patients 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 the member.

12. Cooperative Values and Principles • The society is manned and managed by the labourers based on strong cooperative values and principles. • The society is imbibe by all the cooperative values and ethics like • Self-help  and Self-responsibility -  is the hallmark of the society • Democracy  –  Election is held every five years and there is a active participation of the member in general body and other committee Equality  –  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 other co-operatives. • Ethical values • Openness , Honesty, Social responsibility and Caring for others  • All the members of the Society construction worker and entire system and processors of the society is based on the principle of thrift and mutual help and strong disciplinary rules and procedure.

13. Two Best Practices 1. Cooperative Excellence through Decision makers being the Executors ULCCS has in its policy that the Board of Directors should also involve in the project execution. This is derived from the rule that only workers have the right to be in the Director Board. This ensures uniqueness in compliance of the decision from the Board at various execution levels. This system is a derivative of cooperative principles and can greatly help in taking greater leaps in a chosen endeavor. 2. Cooperative Efficiency through Collective authority responsibility sharing to the lowest segment Each worker, at his own level is free to take decisions on the site subject to already set principles and procedures of the society. This enables a worker to hone leadership skills and have authority-responsibility match at his own level. Both these practices make joint responsibility from bottom to top management which in turn improves contribution and efficiency by several folds.

14. Keys to success and its emulation elsewhere • 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 Communities Lessons 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, efficiency in management increases by several folds.

15. Results of intervention and its impact to the society’s growth and development 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 and livelihood Members worked daily and paid are weekly wages more than Govt. wages IN THE 87 YEARS ULCCS HAS NOT LOST EVEN A SINGLE DAY OF WORK DUE LABOUR PROBLEM

16. Completed Projects: 3302    On Going Projects: 300 Major Completed Projects Calicut Bypass – 33 Crores CRF Road works – 15 Crores NH Realignment – 12 Crores Edasherrykadavu Bridge – 8 Crores

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

18. Conclusion The society was founded aiming at social, cultural, financial and cultural upliftment of its members. The society had been successful in attaining this objective to a great extent ULCCS had grown as the biggest Labour Contract Society by providing direct employment to over 2000 workers from rural areas. ULCCS is a good example of how 23 crores construction labourers can benefit 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.

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