Head (Senior Manager) - Industrial Relations

What You Will Do

Own IR strategy and governance. Build and continuously evolve a national IR framework covering workforce relations, grievance management, dispute prevention, statutory compliance, worker/union engagement, escalation and resolution.

Build workforce intelligence and early-warning mechanisms. Track workforce sentiment, grievances, absenteeism, wage-related concerns, shift and working-condition issues, emerging worker representation or union activity, and other indicators of potential disruption across the network.

Prevent and manage industrial disputes. Develop structured approaches to prevent disputes and lead the response to strikes, work stoppages, protests, gheraos and other workforce disruptions. Engage with worker representatives and union leaders and coordinate with Operations, HR, Legal, partners, local administration, labour authorities and law enforcement, as appropriate.

Bring IR rigour to investigations. Partner with Security & Investigations, HR and Legal on cases involving employees or partner workers, including theft, fraud, misconduct and policy violations. Ensure due process, appropriate documentation and legally sound decision-making.

Govern disciplinary processes. Oversee show-cause notices, domestic enquiries and disciplinary actions, ensuring that processes are fair, consistent, timely and legally defensible under applicable law, standing orders and organisational policy.

Drive partner workforce compliance. Establish and monitor governance over logistics partners covering contract labour requirements, wage and benefits compliance, statutory registrations, working hours, worker documentation, grievance mechanisms and other applicable labour requirements. Drive timely corrective action and escalation where gaps are identified.

Own government and authority engagement. Build effective working relationships with labour departments, labour commissioners, conciliation officers and other relevant government authorities. Represent the organisation in inspections, conciliation proceedings and hearings, in partnership with Legal, and coordinate with Security on matters requiring law-enforcement engagement.

Build effective grievance and escalation channels. Design and strengthen mechanisms such as worker helplines, site-level committees, grievance forums and escalation paths so that workforce concerns are surfaced and resolved before they become formal disputes.

Create scalable IR playbooks and capability. Develop SOPs, policies, escalation matrices and response playbooks for dispute management, investigation-linked disciplinary action, partner workforce issues and authority engagement. Train site leaders, partner supervisors, HR teams and security personnel on relevant IR practices and labour-law basics.

Build IR analytics and leadership reporting. Establish dashboards and regular reviews covering incidents, disputes, grievances, compliance health, partner risks, resolution timelines, repeat issues and emerging trends. Translate these into clear insights and actions for senior leadership.

Strengthen cross-functional governance. Establish clear interfaces between IR, HR, Legal, Operations, Security & Investigations and partner leadership, including decision rights, escalation threshold

What You Will Need

8–15 years of experience in industrial relations, employee relations, labour relations or labour-law compliance, preferably in large, distributed workforce environments.
Experience in logistics, e-commerce, manufacturing, warehousing, retail, infrastructure or other large blue-collar and/or contract-workforce environments is strongly preferred.
Deep working knowledge of applicable Indian labour and employment laws, including the Labour Codes and associated rules/notifications, contract labour requirements, industrial disputes, standing orders and relevant state-specific requirements.
Practical experience applying labour law and IR principles on the ground across multiple sites and, ideally, multiple states.
Proven experience handling industrial disputes, worker grievances, union/worker representative engagement, negotiations, strikes or work stoppages.
Experience conducting or overseeing domestic enquiries and disciplinary proceedings, with a strong understanding of how employee investigations intersect with employment law and due process.
Experience managing contract labour or partner workforce compliance, including audits, statutory requirements, wage-related compliance and remediation.
Strong ability to engage with labour authorities, conciliation officers and other government stakeholders, preferably with experience representing an organisation in formal proceedings.
Strong negotiation, conflict-resolution and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to remain calm, credible and objective in high-pressure situations.
Ability to work effectively across HR, Legal, Operations, Security & Investigations and external partners, with sound judgement on ownership, escalation and confidentiality.
Strong communication skills in English and Hindi. Proficiency in one or more regional languages is an advantage, particularly for workforce-heavy operating regions.
Strong analytical and problem-solving ability, including the ability to use workforce and incident data to identify patterns, risks and preventive actions.
Willingness to travel extensively across operating locations and respond to sensitive on-ground situations at short notice.
High integrity, discretion and maturity, with the ability to handle confidential matters and decisions that can materially affect employees and workers.
A degree in law, HR, labour welfare, social work or a related discipline (LLB, MSW, MBA-HR or equivalent) is preferred.
Role Characteristics
National scope with significant field engagement across the operating network.
High level of cross-functional and external stakeholder interaction.
Combination of strategic programme ownership, operational problem-solving and on-ground dispute management.
Requires sound judgement, neutrality, confidentiality and the ability to balance business continuity with fair and compliant workforce practices.