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THE NATION

Published: June 26, 2013 12:30 IST | Updated: June 25, 2013 14:13 ISTLABOUR ISSUES

Loss of security

At the 45th Indian Labour Conference in New Delhi, labour-related issues get more than the usualattention on account of the general elections next year. But the question is whether the government willtake earnest action on its recommendations. By T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

THE 45th session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), held on May 17 and 18 in New Delhi, was a closely watched event. Like mostissues relating to labour, this annual tripartite meeting, ignored by the mass media and treated trivially by the government, attracted afair share of attention this time for the issues that were flagged in its agenda. The meeting was attended by State Labour Ministers andrepresentatives of central trade union organisations, central organisations of employers, and government departments. While thegovernment listed out its limited achievements in employment generation and pointed out the need for constructive dialogue, trade

unions highlighted instances of violation of labour laws, tripartite agreements and promises made at previous ILCs, including theassurance to fix a national floor level minimum wage (NFLMW) and to amend the Contract Labour Act to bring the wages of contractworkers on a par with that of permanent workers.

The trade unions were rather surprised at the open acknowledgement by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of theimpact of the two-day all-India strike in February this year. But they were critical that the government did little to prevent the strike.

Inaugurating the conference, the Prime Minister said that the strike focussed on a number of issues relating to the welfare of theworking class and also the people at large. These include demands on which there can be no disagreement. For example, demandsfor concrete measures for containing inflation, for generation of employment opportunities, for strict implementation of labour laws,are unexceptionable. There can, however, be differences on the best ways of fulfilling these demands, and we are willing to engageconstructively with the trade unions in this regard. He added that the government had set up a Group of Senior Ministers to go intotrade unions demands.

This cognisance of the strike, which had been criticised by most of the media, industry bodies and sections of the government forhaving caused a loss to the exchequer, indicated that the government had realised that labour-related issues could not be relegated tothe back burner anymore. But there was no indication that the government intended to take up such issues seriously.

The trade unions were aware that it was their broad unity and joint actions, cutting across ideological lines, that had forced thescam-tainted United Progressive Alliance government to take cognisance of the tremendous resentment among the working class. ThePrime Ministers exhortation that labour laws be implemented strictly came with a caveat. While he said that the demands raisedduring the two-day strike were unexceptionable, he added that there could be differences on the best way to fulfil them.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) member of theRajya Sabha, welcomed the remarks of the Prime Minister, but said strict implementation of labour laws could only happen if therewas a shift in the style of governance. The entire labour law administration and labour relations management has become a kind ofpublic-private partnership [PPP] between the government machinery and corporate employers to promote violation and evasion oflabour laws on aspects of minimum wage, working hours, social security, workplace safety, contract work, Sen pointed out in hisaddress. More than 200 workers and trade union activists of Noida in Uttar Pradesh were in jail since February 20 for havingparticipated in the strike and they had been denied bail for over three months, he said.

In a similar situation, 185 workers of the Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar in Haryana have been languishing in jail for over a year. Asmany as 500 regular workers and 1,200 contract workers were terminated without any inquiry. There were innumerable examples of

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suppression emanating from the nexus between governments and employers, he said. In this context of labour law violations, all talkof social partnership and social dialogue were meaningless, he emphasised.

The items on the agenda for discussion were equally interesting. Four key contemporary issues were flagged namely, (a) serviceconditions, wages and social security for various categories of workers employed in different Central and State government schemes;(b) social security with special reference to Assured Pension with indexation for all workers including those self-employed; (c) labourlaws for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector; and (d) measures to improve employment and employability. Thiswas for the first time that the service conditions, wages and social security concerns of scheme-based workers were under discussion.It was no coincidence that it was listed on the agenda. Increased unionisation of and recent protests by such workers in variousgovernment schemes, who are mostly ill-paid, had literally compelled the Labour Ministry and the government to do so.

In fact, in a detailed critique of the agenda note, the CITU pointed out that the Labour Ministry was silent on the implementation of

the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, passed by Parliament in 2008. At least a status report on the implementation of thewelfare schemes listed in the Schedule of the Act and the number of beneficiaries as a percentage of the total unorganised workforceshould have been there, the note said.

Government position

On its part, the government pointed out through the Prime Ministers speech that despite the global economic meltdown, 20 millionadditional job opportunities had been created and the unemployment rate had declined from 8.3 per cent to 6.6 per cent between2004-05 and 2009-10. The delegates were told that total employment in the organised sector had registered a growth of more than 9per cent and the number of women employed in the organised sector had registered a growth of about 19 per cent between 2005 and2011, which was quite heartening. The Prime Minister said that the government was making serious efforts to implement theMahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the National Rural Livelihood Mission, the Swarnajayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojanaand the Prime Ministers Employment Generation Programme. What perhaps went unmentioned was that all the various employmentschemes were pegged at very low incomes in the majority of cases, providing the basic minimum wages to survive, and that they werenot permanent. They were also bereft of benefits provided to regular employees of the government. The quality of employment wasclearly not on the agenda of the government. Likewise, the Prime Ministers speech was resoundingly silent on the quality of

employment of the scheme-based workers, the majority of whom are women.The proposals for setting up 5,000 Skill Development Centres and 27 Advanced Training Institutes to train five crore people in the12th Five Year Plan period with the help of the private sector came in for criticism. Sen cautioned against the deployment of the PPPmodel in the Skill Development Initiative Scheme under the Modular Employable Skill programme, which he said had led to fakeclaims of training, which was being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. He said that the private sectors share in totaldomestic investment had actually shrunk since 2009 and yet the government was encouraging it to invest. He said that it was thesame PPP model in governance that had led to the accumulation of direct tax arrears of Rs.4,82,000 crores.

The president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), C.K. Saji Narayanan, pointed out the blatant violation of labour laws in thecountry and the virtual collapse of tripartitism. The long tripartite tradition of our country built up by stalwarts representing all thethree partners has been shaken by what is happening in many parts of India. It is quite disturbing that both violations and violence areincreasing around the national capital city of Delhi in areas like Noida, which is a shame. (The) Manesar model of discontentment isbrewing in different parts of the country, which is a matter of concern for all. Blatant violation of labour laws has added fuel toviolence and killings of managers in places like Allied Nippon factory, Precol in Coimbatore, Yanam in Puducherry, Assamplantations, etc. apart from Manesar. We are witnessing a breakdown of labour relations. This is quite unprecedented in the recenthistory of Indian industry, he said in his address at the inaugural session.

He said that both the Ministry of Commerce and the MSME Ministry wanted exemption of labour laws in the National ManufacturingIndustrial Zones and the small scale sector. The government has sought to misrepresent the case of the MSMEs which were among thelargest employment generators in the country and has now been hit hard by the onslaught of globalisation. Unions were unanimous intheir demand that very small enterprises run by a single person required simplification and codification of laws for easy handling. Butthe government had wrongly presented their case.

The MSME Ministry, Saji Narayanan said, wanted exemption of labour laws, replacement of the labour inspectorate with self-compliance, and the relaxation of the Contract Labour Act. The government, he said, needed to bring out a White Paper on twodecades of economic reforms, especially in the light of the Economic Surveys finding that India had been pushed to the third positionin the list of the fastest growing nations, while Indonesia had risen to the second position.

The CITU, in its critique, held that on the issue of employment, 89.5 per cent of workers in MSMEs were working in unregisteredentities, where practically no labour laws are implemented. It concurred with the BMS point of view and observed in its critique ofthe agenda note that the broad views of the Ministry of MSME on labour laws as outlined suffer from such ridiculousness andwarrants total rejection.

Like his counterpart in the CITU, Saji Narayanan said that the ILC was discussing the conditions of service of about 25 lakh people,including ASHAs and persons working in anganwadis and various government schemes, such as the midday meal scheme, who are thelifeline of Indias development. It was ridiculous, he said, to treat people who work for their livelihood as volunteers. Employabilityshould be about creating decent jobs as per the standards set by the ILO, he said. He remarked that it was a pity the governmentproposed to pay only Rs. 1,000 a month to midday meal workers. Anganwadi and other scheme workers, he said, should berecognised as government employees, which is what the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments had done. The Union governmenthas failed to pay sufficient pension to workers contributing to PF [Provident Fund] for decades together; many of them get as low asbelow Rs.100 a month instead of at least Rs.3,000. The government has also failed to ensure pension and other benefits to workers ofthe unorganised sector in spite of the passing of such a law [UOWSS Act, 2008] five years back. The Ministry of Labour was forced tomoot NFLMW, which was less than minimum wages, he said.

The 45th ILC was significant in that in a long time the voices of the trade unions were heard seriously and for once the employerlobbies remained on the back foot. As expected, the recommendations of the ILC have not been very satisfactory, with the Ministriesconcerned themselves objecting to some crucial recommendations, especially those dealing with the welfare of scheme-based workers.

The ILC could not arrive at any consensus regarding the service conditions, minimum wage requirements and social security


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requirements of the workers belonging to the anganwadi, midday meal, ASHA, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and other schemes. Thedemand of the trade unions that they be treated as government employees rather than as volunteers and honorary workers was alsonot acceded to. The representatives from the Ministries concerned, including the Ministry of Women and Child Development, did notagree with the recommendations of the sub-committee, including one recommendation on pension and a one-time payment ofgratuity to these workers.

The committee on social security with assured pension with indexation for workers, including those self-employed, made several boldrecommendations such as reiterating the recommendations on social security made at the 44th session. Apart from universal socialsecurity coverage for the entire working population of the country, an old demand of trade unions, the committee also suggested thatthe current government spending on social security schemes as a percentage of GDP be enhanced as it was very low compared withthat in other countries.

It remains to be seen whether the recommendations of the 45th session of the ILC and those of previous sessions will be takenforward in earnest by the government at least for electoral reasons if not for the welfare of the working class.


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