Statement AGAINST LABOUR LAW AMENDMENTS AND FDI IN DEFENCE, INSURANCE, AILWAYS CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS TO HOLD NATIONAL PROTEST CONVENTION All the Central Trade Unions of the country express deep concern at the reported unilateral move to amend the labour laws by a number of state governments and by the Central Govt. Most of the amendments sought to be done will have serious negative impact on the working conditions including trade union rights of the workers and the employees. It is unfortunate that in spite of the assurance given by the Labour Minister that Central Trade Unions 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 31st July, 2014 in Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act and Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act will make hire and fire much easier for the employers and 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 of 20 to 50 workers for registration of contractors will enable the principal employer and 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 Apprentice Act will also adversely affect the service conditions of the workers throwing overwhelming majority of them out of the coverage of all basic labour laws. The Central Govt. is also considering amendments in Minimum Wages Act and Industrial Disputes Act. 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 Govt 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 Govt’s total inaction in implementing the consensus recommendations of 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 govt schemes. The Central Trade Unions also denounced the retrograde move of the Govt in hiking/allowing FDI in Defence sector, insurance and Railways and also its aggressive move for disinvestment in CPSUs. The CTUs call upon the Rajasthan Govt. to reverse the enacted amendments to the labour laws and urge upon the Central Govt. to consult and honour the views of Central Trade Unions before placing these amendments in the Parliament. The CTUs also call upon the trade union movement 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. CTUs also decided to build up united struggle against such anti-worker and anti-people machinations of the Govt and in the immediate preparatory stage decided to hold a NATIONAL CONVENTION latest by first week of September 2014 involving all federations and unions across the sectors wherefrom programme of united movement will be announced. CTUs also call upon their industrial federations to develop joint movement on their sectoral issues and against the policies of the Govt. BMS INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC TUCC SEWA AICCTU UTUC LPF
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 09:52:16 +0000
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