Absenteeism and Turnover of Migrant Construction Workers in Indian Projects-A Survey-Based Study

The Indian construction sector contributes about 10% to nation's GDP and employs approximately 35 million people. The construction projects in India are facing key challenges such as time and cost overruns, low-productivity and lack of skilled labor. The major portion of the industry's workforce consists of transient or migrant workers. Studies in other countries have shown that absenteeism and turnover of workers leads to increased labor costs and decreased productivity. The socio-economic situation in India is very different from the countries where studies were reported earlier. The present study aims to address the issue of absenteeism and turnover of migrant workers in the Indian construction industry. Interviews with the project managers and labor sub-contractors were conducted to ascertain the causes for high absenteeism and turnover of workers in 15 construction projects in India. The projects were geographically distributed from six different states of India including Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Pondicherry, and Tamil Nadu. Findings of the study indicate that illness, injury, lack of basic facilities, and payment delays are the significant factors contributing to absenteeism and turnover of workers. Strategies and best practices recommended from this study will help project managers and field managers to better manage migrant workers, and improve project performance.