Ratan Tata

London, May 21: Ratan Tata has said his experience in Corus and Jaguar Land Rover suggested “nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody”, unlike in India where people are ready to work at midnight to tackle a crisis.

Tata now could have added: “Take, for example, Mamata Banerjee, the new chief minister of Bengal. On her very first day at Writers’, she stayed well past midnight.”

Neither Tata nor the British appear to be in a mood for such digressions after the magazine section of The Times, London, published an interview featuring his remarks.

The British are not amused because an impression has set in that Tata, till now possibly the most respected Indian captain of industry, has said workers here, especially management, are lazy.

The controversy could not have come at a worse time because Tata Steel is proposing to close or mothball part of its Scunthorpe plant, putting at risk 1,200 jobs. The plans would also see 300 jobs lost at its Teesside site.

Tata, who is a member of David Cameron’s Business Advisory Group and co-chairman of the UK-India CEO Forum, described his surprise at the lacklustre attitude of bosses at steel maker Corus and car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which he bought in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

“It’s a work-ethic issue,” Tata told the Times magazine in the interview, which appears today but apparently took place two months ago. “In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody. I feel if you have come from Bombay to have a meeting and the meeting goes till 6pm, I would expect that you won’t, at 5 ’clock, say, ‘Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home.’ Friday, from 3.30pm, you can’t find anybody in their office.”

In India, “if you are in a crisis, if it means working to midnight, you would do it,” he said.

He took British management to task. “The worker in JLR seems to be willing to do that; the management is not,” he said.

The 73-year-old added that things had improved. “The new management team (at JLR) has put an end to that. They call meetings at 5 ’clock.”

JLR declined The Telegraph’s invitation to respond but Roy Rickhuss, Community Union’s national officer for steel, told WalesOnline: “I’m shocked and extremely disappointed that the company would make comments of that nature, particularly at a time when they have just announced significant cutbacks in the UK. His comments are, at best, ill thought-out and insensitive.”

“The British workforce has been totally committed and delivers year on year productivity increases in the region of 10 per cent, which is equal to world best practice,” the union leader said. “In 2008, when we were in the depths of the recession, the company engaged with the workforce through the unions and delivered cost savings to the company close on £1 billion. That was through the commitment and initiatives of the workforce, and the company went on record to thank the UK workforce for their co-operation and commitment at the time. He really ought to think before he makes such comments.”

Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh, urged Cameron to drop Tata as an adviser. “I think the government needs to reconsider whether he is a valuable person to have on the business council.”

Downing Street did not comment when asked by The Telegraph to do so.

A statement issued by Financial Dynamics on Ratan Tata’s behalf took issue with the way selected quotes from the interview were turned into a Page 1 report by the paper.

The statement said the interview contained “comments by Tata about the management ethos of Corus and Jaguar Land Rover when Tata acquired the companies in 2006 and 2008 respectively. …. The Times also seeks to present these comments as being about company managers today, even though Mr Tata makes clear in the interview that new management at Corus and Jaguar Land Rover has eliminated those practices. …This entire interview was recorded and the transcript will confirm the misinformation created by this alleged quote. Tata, therefore, wishes to make clear that The Times article fundamentally misrepresents the interview.”

In the interview, Tata has expressed confidence in Britain in no uncertain terms.

This has led the Times journalist Damian Whitworth to conclude: “With his combination of brutal honesty and rousing optimism about Britain’s future, it is not hard to see why British prime ministers love their intimate chats with Ratan Tata.”

Tata seeks to counter the argument that Britain cannot again be a manufacturing power.

He was impressed with what he found when the Bengali peer, Lord Bhattacharyya of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, took him on a tour of engineering plants in the Midlands.

“I think there is a feeling that there is no innovation in the UK – there is great innovation in the UK,” Tata asserted.

He also said: “I would like to see the manufacturing sector, the Rolls-Royces and others, stand up and say, ‘Let’s make the UK a manufacturing centre of excellence once again.’ It was and can be. Why should one be defeatist and say it is not?”

When Ratan Tata retires, will his half-brother Noel Tata, succeed him as group chairman? Tata said: “I think if he is to run this, he should have greater exposure than he has had. Partly his not having it has been his known choice.”