The State and the Labour Process: Bureaucratic Flexibility and Constrained Autonomy in the Indian Information Technology Industry

ABSTRACT This paper examines the connections between state regulation and the labour process, an underdeveloped area within labour process analysis. It explores the interaction between state employment regulation and bureaucratic control mechanisms in the Indian Information Technology (IT) industry to understand whether and how state regulation affects work organisation, focusing especially on control elements related to discipline, grievance redressal and dismissals. The findings reveal not only how state regulation constrain the individualisation and flexibilisation of managerial controls, but also how employers attempt to circumvent them. Based on the findings, the paper argues that the labour process could be better understood as being organised with a constrained autonomy , rather than a relative autonomy that is attributed to it.