Head (Senior Manager) - Industrial Relations

About the Team You will join the Security & Investigations team within Fulfilment & Experience (F&E) at Meesho. F&E is the operational and technological backbone powering India's cost-efficient, reliable and scalable e-commerce network, serving 100M+ monthly active users. From enabling Valmo's distributed logistics network to building scalable fulfilment and experience platforms, F&E operates at the intersection of technology, operations and network innovation. Within F&E, the Security & Investigations team safeguards the integrity and resilience of this network. The team investigates shipment loss, pilferage, fraud and misconduct, oversees physical security across operating sites, and coordinates with law enforcement and other stakeholders where required. Working closely with Operations, HR, Legal and logistics partners, the team helps keep the network secure, compliant and resilient. About the Role Valmo's operating network is powered by a large and diverse workforce spanning sort centres, hubs and last-mile operations. A significant portion of this workforce is engaged through logistics partners and other workforce arrangements, creating a complex industrial-relations environment across multiple locations and states. As Head – Industrial Relations, you will own the Industrial Relations (IR) charter for the operating network, within the Security & Investigations function, and work closely with HR, Legal, Operations and partner leadership. Your mandate will be to build a stable, compliant and scalable workforce-relations framework that prevents avoidable disputes, enables fair and timely resolution of workforce issues, and provides strong governance when matters escalate. The role combines strategic IR leadership with significant field engagement. You will build early-warning mechanisms, manage worker and union relationships, oversee dispute and disciplinary processes, strengthen partner workforce compliance, engage with labour authorities, and create playbooks and governance mechanisms that can scale with the network. 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