All-India Protest Day on 28 October 2009
Join Trade Unions in All-India Protest Day on 28 October 2009
The political space in India since the 1990s has been brazenly opened up to manipulations of capital. With the consolidation of imperialist forces and the institutionalisation of neo-liberal policies there has been an ever growing exposure of domestic capital to international competition, which has reinforced the offensive on labour by employers directly as well as through the use of coercive and brutal power of the state. On one hand, existing labour laws are being flagrantly violated by employers, including where the government is the employer, and on the other hand any attempt at protest by workers are more often than not violently thwarted by the employers with direct or indirect collusion with the state machinery.
Between 1990 and 2006 the productivity growth has far exceeded wage growth in India which means that the share of labour in total income has declined in the period. 435 million out of 470 million of working population in India is employed in informal employment with no regulation of work or social security. The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008, as was passed by the last UPA government failed to provide a minimum universal social security benefit to these 435 million workers. Instead it ended up creating yet machinery for exclusion of rightful beneficiaries. There is lack of political will to universalise the existing social security mechanisms like the ESI and PF and extending it to workers who are covered by no benefits since the largest number of workers work in non-standard employment.
There has also been an increasing participation of women in wage employment though largely in vulnerable employments. Only about 9% of women are employed in regular wage/salaried employment, more than 60% is self-employed and 30% in casual employment. On an average, in rural India, a woman’s daily wage is Rs 20 less than that of a man, though both work equal hours. In the case of daily wages in urban areas the difference is of Rs 50.
The overriding problem faced by millions of workers employed in various forms of non-standard work is the complete absence of regulation of work in these enterprises. Though in strict legal terms most labour laws like the Minimum wages Act, the Payment of Wages Act, apply to these establishments howsoever small they may be in size, there is no enforcement machinery in place, and nor is there political will to set up any such machinery, that will ensure that these laws that establishes the basic right of a worker to earn a livelihood and hence live is protected. The political will to regulate becomes stark when on one hand we find large enterprises being closed down and the production being outsourced to much smaller ones, at times even to home-based industries, under the guise of increasing competitiveness and on the other the government passing legislations that make it easier for employers to flout labour laws.
There has also been a significant rise in income inequality, by 4 per cent, in India over the past decade with steeply rising executive pay in contrast to falling wages of blue-collar workers as well as the large number of workers employed under temporary contracts and in the informal economy. With increasing deregulation of the labour market, there has been a concerted effort of employers to contractualise work and also hire apprentices and trainees to perform work of a regular and perennial nature. Though contract labourers are legally protected under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolishment) Act, there is large scale violation of the provisions of this legislation along with all other labour laws that apply to them. The Ministry of Labour, GoI admits that though 83414 violations were detected, only 3857 cases were prosecuted and only 2 registration certificates of contractors were cancelled in the year 2000.
The public sector has also faced the brunt of liberalisation. Legally the most protected workforce, the government has used the carrot-and-stick policy on them and pushed the VRS on them. This was just a prelude to a quick spate of privatisation which however slowed down given the strength of the unions in these PSUs. UPA II, now not dependent on the support of the parliamentary left, has come back with the agenda of privatisation in a new garb.
The space for collective bargaining and the sanctity of the fundamental right to association has been under sustained attack from employers in close collusion with the state and the judiciary. In the public sector, the periodicity of collective wage agreements has increased from 3 to 5 and even 10 years. In many private sector companies, trade unions for all practical purposes have lost the right to collective bargaining. There is a rampant labour law violation extending from non-payment of minimum wages, PF and gratuity dues, overtime work with no overtime pay, arbitrary dismissals to mass victimisation. Instances of refusal by employers to negotiate with unions, or even recognise unions chosen democratically by workers, are extensive and range from large Indian corporates like the MRF and KEC to multinationals like Unilever, Hyundai and Bosch. The recent strike of Jet Airways pilots is also an instance that clearly indicates the hostile space that unions have to negotiate their rightful demands in. Attempts at union assertion are more often than not met with victimisation and mass dismissals. Police are used to forcibly quell peaceful struggles, as states compete with each other to show how investor friendly they are. The police attack on protesting Honda workers was not a stray incident. The never ending cycle of unfair labour practices committed by employers go unaddressed by government and collect dust with the judiciary, and more often than not the rare victories of unions turn out to be pyrrhic victories.
The global crisis has grievously affected the working class both in terms of price rise because of poor management by government of the agricultural sector and since employers, even in such sectors that have not been affected by the crisis, have used this as an opportunity to restructure their operations at the cost of workers. The need of the hour is to build a united working class movement in order to build a successful resistance to imperialist globalisation.
A National Convention of Workers, organised jointly by AICCTU, AITUC, AIUTUC, BMS, CITU, HMS, INTUC, TUCC and UTUC, was held on 14th September 2009 in New Delhi, called for an All-India Protest Day on 28 October 2009. The Convention called upon the Government to take urgent steps to:
- Control price rise of essential commodities through appropriate distributive measures like universal PDS and containing speculation in commodity market.
- Link employment protection in the recession stricken sectors with the stimulus package being offered to the concerned entrepreneurs and for augmenting public investment in infrastructure. Ensure strict enforcement of all basic labour laws without any exception or exemption and stringent punitive measures for violation of labour laws.
- Universalise Social Security benefits under the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008 and create a National Fund for the Unorganised Sector to provide for a Minimum Social Security Benefit to all unorganized workers including the contract/casual workers in line with the recommendation of National Commission on Enterprises in Unorganised Sector and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour.
- Stop disinvestment of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) along with revival of sick Public Sector Undertakings.
The NTUI came together with the unity of the trade union movement at the centre of its agenda and in pursuance of this, since the inception of the NTUI, we have at all times responded to the joint call of central trade unions for united action. It is the understanding of the NTUI that the mood of working people in the country is for unity of the working class. Therefore NTUI endorses this call and in addition to the above, demands:
- An 8-hour working day
- Violation of statute on Equal wages for Equal work made a Cognisable offence
- Fixation of Need-based Minimum wage based on cost of living.
- Non-contributory Minimum Social Security Benefit to include basic healthcare benefit and minimum pension equal to 50% of minimum wage.
- Increasing the entitlement of NREGA to 100 days to every adult living in a rural area.
- Right to Safe Work for all
- Remove Ceiling on Bonus payment – Cap Executive pay
- Mandatory Recognition of Trade Unions – Representative Trade Union chosen by Secret Ballot
- Unfair Labour Practices criminally prosecuted