By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Lok Sabha General Election 2024 has come with very high stake for workforce. Barring the pro-BJP Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, all the Central Trade Unions are campaigning against the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, since their returning to power for the third time would mean the implementation of the four controversial labour codes against which they have been agitating since 2020. Moreover, the CTU leaders believe that even the scope for fighting against anti-labour policies and laws will vanish if BJP returns to power.
AITUC national general secretary Amarjeet Kaur has only recently said, “It is now a question of do or die for trade unions in the country. We are very clear that if this regime comes back to power, then there will be no scope even to fight back. Trade unions think that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are very crucial,” adding “The Modi government is determined to take away our basic rights of agitation, unionisation, and going on strike. His labour code agenda is actually aimed at diluting and finishing some of the laws.”
The BJP government has subsumed twenty-nine existing labour laws into four labour codes. It is being propagated by Modi government that these would universalise minimum wage, expand social security coverage and improve working environment. However, the joint platform of 10 Central Trade unions allege that these codes would bring modern day slavery. They have been protesting against these codes alleging them to be anti-labour and pro corporate. Though implementation of these codes has been deferred until now, Modi government intends to implement if BJP comes to power.
The joint platform of 10 CTUs says that the last 10 year of Modi rule saw a relentless attack on the livelihood and working conditions of the workers. The hard won rights of the workers are sought to be curtailed to facilitate their unbridled exploitation by the big corporates.
CTU leaders says that the Code on Wages does not provide universal minimum wage as different thresholds are applied for different areas. It also does not ensure minimum wages for all workers including the unorganised workers. The formula for fixing minimum wages, as per the recommendations of the 15th Indian Labour Conference (ILC), is incorporated only in the Rules and not in the main Act.
They say that the code on occupational safety, health and working conditions has highly diluted the existing laws or grossly altered to benefit the employers. It enables increase in working hours to 12 a day. In addition, serious changes are made in the character of employment relations by promoting and legalising fragile employment like fixed term employment, contract work etc in the name of flexibility. Thus, besides increasing exploitation, workers performing the same job at the same workplace are divided through different wages and working conditions to prevent their unionisation and collective actions. The contract workers and the migrant workers are the worst to be affected. The Inter State Migrant Workmen’s Act, which provided some protection to the migrant workers, has been subsumed in this code diluting or omitting all the protective provisions in this Act.
The code on industrial relations deprives the basic rights of the workers to organisation and collective action, CTU leaders claim. After implementation of this code, they say, registering trade unions will become more difficult. Registrars are given arbitrary powers to cancel union registration. It facilitates the ‘hire and fire’ regime for the employers. Collective actions are sought to be made impossible. The code enables the authorities to declare most of the strikes as ‘illegal’.
According to the CTUs, the code on social security does not propose any specific benefits for the workers. There is no concrete social security scheme; nor are the necessary resources provided. In fact, it has made even the existing social security rights and provisions for large sections of workers, uncertain. Under the pretext of rationalising existing time tested social security schemes like EPF and ESI, the code has actually laid the foundation for the process of dismantling them.
CTU leaders are campaigning among the working class and reminding them how permanent employment in government departments and central public sector enterprises has sharply declined. In central public sector enterprises it has declined by 2.7 lakhs, from 17.3 lakhs in March 2013 to 14.6 lakh in March 2022. The number of contract and outsourced workers has increased from 19 per cent to 42.5 per cent in the same period. It is reported that around 65 per cent of the contract workers in the public sector enterprises were appointed during the last ten years. Contract and outsourced workers doing the same job are paid only a fraction of the wages of the permanent employees. (IPA Service)
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