Abstract: With two public sector undertakings getting disinvested in KGF the survival of many engineering workshops in adjoining BangarpetTaluk faced a bleak future as they sustained themselves mainly by getting orders from these public sector undertakings. But among these workshops itself the biggest of them all, namely Deccan Hydraulics started exporting their goods thereby even giving orders for these smaller engineering workshops in machining and fabricating which helped them to survive. The research gap indicated mixed fortunes for the survival of these workshops. Wth the closure of many Public Sector Undertakings in Bangalore such as Wheel and Axle, and partial disinvestment in BEL the economic condition of these workshops hung in desperation.

The main objective of this study lay in understanding the position of the local workforce, how they were going to fend for themselves and feed their families. Since most of these workshops were employing twenty-five to seventy workers they could be classified as medium scale enterprises while the smaller machining shops employed fifteen to thirty workers their quality of work life maintained came to the fore. Did they fulfil the special causes in Quality of Work Life (QWL). such as payment and stability of employment stress management at workplace, did workers also participate in managing of resources maintain cordial employer and employee relations, get promotions based on merit, grievance management and settlement of issues of permanent jobs. Any activity concerning human resource (man power or personnel ) will impact the quality of work life. Research methodology involved use of both primary and secondary data and the questionnaire method was used to collect data. Sample size was 110 and simple percentage method was used to analyze the collected data. The findings indicated that since 2019,2020 and 2021 it was quite tough to get orders, even during pre pandemic period. Post pandemic currently in 2020 January and February it was seen that the larger workshops gave machining orders to smaller machine shops situated in their vicinity. There was no assurance of permanence in jobs, no work timings followed and no pay given for overtime. All in all it was hard work for less pay and a discontented set of workers who even had to work part time in rice mills to sustain their families. To conclude hard times brought difficulties and governments move to close most of the Public sector undertakings (PSUs) which gave orders and sustenance to these machining and fabricating workshops made their economic situation even worse.

Keywords: engineering workshops Machinists Fabricators Quality of work life Medium and small scale enterprises. (MSES)

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2022.9329