August 17, 2014
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CTUs to Hold National Protest Convention

ALL central trade unions, including CITU, have decided to hold a national convention of workers in Delhi in the first week of September, in protest against the onslaught on the working class by the Narendra Modi government through its move to amend various fundamental labour laws.

The central trade unions -- CITU, AITUC, INTUC, BMS and HMS ­-- at a meeting on August 7 vehemently opposed both the unilateral path taken by the central government, totally ignoring the central trade unions, and dangerous anti-labour contents of the amendments.

The central trade unions (CTUs) said the amendments – already legislated by the BJP-led government in the state of Rajasthan and moved in Parliament by the Modi dispensation – will have serious negative impact on the working conditions and the trade union rights and the workers and employees.

While the role of the Rajasthan Government was condemned for their first initiation in the matter, it is understood that things are happening with the approval from the central government. The CTUs also denounced the move of the Modi government to hike FDI in Defence, Insurance and Railways, and disinvestment in Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs).

The CTUs will declare their future programme of actions at the September convention of workers.

In a joint statement, the CTUs expressed deep concern at the reported unilateral move to amend labour laws by a number of state governments and the Centre. “It is unfortunate that in spite of the assurance given by the Labour Minister that the CTUs will be consulted, these amendments in labour laws are being pushed through without any consultations with them. The Rajasthan Assembly has passed three amendments which in our view are more retrograde and detrimental to the rights and livelihood of the working people at large. The whole process is aimed to weaken the tripartite consultation mechanism.”

 

The amendments passed by Rajasthan Assembly on July 31 in the Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act and the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act will make the hire and fire system much easier for the employers and will lead to rampant casualisation of employment. Liberalising the provisions of Factories Act will imperil the safety at work place in small and medium scale enterprises and will push majority of factories out of its coverage. Similarly raising the ceiling on the number of workers form 20 to 50 for registration of contractors will enable the principal employer and the contractor to become unaccountable for service conditions of the workers in a large number of enterprises.

 

Certain amendments approved by the Union Cabinet in Factories Act, Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers for certain Establishments) and the Apprentice Act will also have adverse impact on the service conditions of the workers throwing overwhelming majority of them out of the coverage of all basic labour laws. The proposed amendment to Apprenticeship Act can replace the contract/casual, temporary workers and even regular workers by comparatively low paid apprentices.

 

In essence, all moves of amendments in the labour laws, both by the central government and by the government in Rajasthan, are aimed at empowering the employers to retrench/lay off workers or declare closure/shut down at will and also resort to mass scale contractorisation. These are also designed to push out more than seventy per cent of the industrial establishments in the country and their workers out of the purview of almost all labour laws, thereby allowing the employers a free hand to further squeeze and exploit the workers.

 

The CTUs also expressed dismay over the government's total inaction in implementing the consensus recommendations of the 43rd, 44th and 45th Indian Labour Conferences on formulation of minimum wages, same wage and benefits as regular workers for the contract workers and granting status of workers with attendant benefits to those employed in various central government schemes.

The CTUs called upon the Rajasthan government to reverse the enacted amendments to the labour laws and urge upon the Centre to consult and honour the views of CTUs before tabling these amendments in Parliament. The CTUs also called upon the trade union movements of Rajasthan to intensify their struggle for reversal of the anti-worker amendments in labour laws, assuring full solidarity of the working people in the country in their united struggle.