Abandonment, hunger, loss of employment바카라if there is a single class of people worst hit by the pandemic it is India바카라s working class, migrant or otherwise. On this Labour Day, there was little for them to be optimistic바카라unemployment loomed, as did dilution of hard-won rights.The Centre바카라s decision to ease industrial activities in the third phase of lockdown has seen at least five state governments increasing the working hours of factory hands from the existing eight hours to 12 hours a day바카라a major departure from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) norms, ratified by India in 1921. The state governments say the step was taken to reduce footfalls and to enforce social distancing.
COVIDED! Trade Unions Smell A Fish As Centre On Verge Of Tweaking Labour Laws
By increasing working hours from eight to 12, states are violating international norms and the Centre may have other plans that may affect the labour class
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have amended the Factories Act (FA), invoking special powers바카라permitted during a public emergency. The extension of working hours will be applied to establishments across the states. However, trade unions and experts claim that the government is just fast tracking바카라using the COVID-19 shutdown as an excuse바카라some of the vexed proposals in the Labour Reforms Bills now pending before Parliament. They add that the changes are being pushed through states, since labour is a concurrent subject in India바카라s federal system.
The Modi government has introduced the labour reforms bills to attract investments to boost the economy and generate employment. As part of labour reform initiatives, the Union labour ministry merged 44 labour laws into four 바카라codes바카라바카라wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions.
The proposal to review working hours figured in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill. A parliamentary standing committee on April 13 has submitted its recommendations on the labour reform code bills, which have fuelled speculation that the Centre may take an ordinance route or executive order to pass the codes, say trade unions. While wage code has already been passed in Parliament바카라s winter session, the other three codes were met with resistance from trade unions and opposition parties. Subsequently, the bill was sent to the parliament standing committee.
K.P. Kannan, former director, Centre for Development Studies, says that an increase in working hours is in violation of labour laws and will deal a blow to the working class. Only two states have announced double wages to extra hours so far. 바카라The government says that it바카라s a temporary arrangement. But it바카라s a political excuse to hoodwink poor labourers. If they implement it in the informal sector, workers won바카라t be able to oppose it as they don바카라t have trade union strength in small enterprises,바카라 says Kannan.
Locked Out
Families of jobless labourers get off a truck to go home바카라native places hundreds of miles away.
Though the Factories Act has not been amended by the Centre, trade union leaders say that by permitting states to change the law, it is using the lockdown as a cover to push through the labour codes.
Tapan Sen, general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) notes that the states have amended the FA under the public emergency, which is defined as external or internal attack on security. Thus COVID-19 is not a public emergency under the Act. 바카라There is no rationale for adding hours. This is a sinister plan to benefit employers and to extract more hours from workers,바카라 says Sen, adding that the ministry hadn바카라t consulted unions before taking such a step.
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However, economist Pronab Sen says that since there are no alternatives in sight, 12-hour shifts seem to be a feasible idea to start economic activity. 바카라Unless there is a significant increase in the working capital, small companies won바카라t be able to resume production. It바카라s a better alternative than companies shutting shop,바카라 says Sen.
Another major bone of contention, according to experts, is the parliamentary panel바카라s endorsement of a proposal empowering companies to 바카라hire and fire바카라. The Industrial Relations Code proposes that companies which employ staff up to 300 people can sack workers and close units without the approval of the government. Earlier, that threshold was up to 100 staff members.
Some states바카라Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh바카라have already raised the threshold from 100 to 300. Kannan says that this is done in order to benefit the employer rather than safeguarding the interest of the worker. 바카라Ninety-nine per cent of Indian establishments employ less than 100 people; so this proposal will benefit large corporates. Corporates will have a free ride as most of them employ more than 300 workers,바카라 says Kannan.
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Ritu Dewan of the Indian Society of Labour Economics says that the proposals in the labour codes, such as restrictions on strikes and forming trade unions, are heavily stacked against workers. 바카라There is a proposal that payments to workers during natural calamities would be 바카라unjustifiable바카라. Considering the COVID-19 crisis, these are totally anti-worker changes,바카라 says Dewan.
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