CASE STUDY: JOB EVALUATION AND GREY IRON FOUNDRY The foundry has been regarded as one of the worst places to work in. The work at Grey Iron Foundry is hot, dirty and heavy. Physical endurance, rather than brains and intelligence, is considered as chief requirement to get the job done in the foundry. Yet, according to the job evaluation plan of the company, physical ability and 'working conditions are weighted relatively lower than responsibility', training', and 'skill'. As a consequence, most of the foundry jobs are rated at the bottom of the wage scale of the company. In recent years, it has been increasingly difficult to get men for working in the foundry. The management had to actively search for days to get men to work in the foundry. Often, the management had to employ men who could not get jobs elsewhere due to their personal limitations in terms of ability, intelligence and competence. This has led to further lowering of the already low social status of the foundry in the eyes of other employees in the plant. The matter has reached a crisis now. There are sixteen vacancies in the foundry at present and it is almost impossible to hire new men for these jobs at the evaluated rate. The Human Resource Manager of the company, Ronit Roy, has a difficult task on his hand. Some of the basic questions which need to be answered. QUESTIONS 1. How should this problem be handled? 2. Should the Human Resource Manager suggest the management to revise its job evaluation programme? Or should he suggest to treat foundry job as an exception to job evaluation? 3. How should the management deal with the reactions of other workers if it decided to increase foundry wages or change foundry working conditions, but not other wages or working conditions