Public sector workers strike in India
Successful
strike of 250 million workers in India
Nearly 250 million
workers went on a one day strike across India on the call of ten largest trade
union federations. The BJP led
government tried everything to stop the strike taking place. The government
harassed and intimidated the public sector workers belonging to state owned
banks- transport and other public sector services. The workers also took out
massive rallies- public protests and demonstrations against privatisation-
liberalisation and anti- worker labour laws. This is the fourth country-wide
strike since 2014 when Modi took power in India.
The
federations and unions have a 13-point charter of demands which include urgent measures
from the government to contain price-rise by “universalisation of public
distribution system” and “containing unemployment through concrete
measures for employment generation.” The unions have been calling for action on a
list of demands and they make out that the government is not paying heed to any
of it.
Indian
economy is facing slowdown in the growth. Once the fastest growing economy in
world- it has lost the steam in last two years. Its GDP growth fell from 8.7%
to less than 4%. The unemployment has jumped to 6.1% which is highest in last 45
years. The inflation is on the rise.
One of the
key demands of the unions has been to increase the minimum wages of workers.
While it is a long-standing demand, in the past, unions have asked for monthly
minimum wages at Rs 15,000 for workers, they now demand the government to hike
it to Rs 21,000.
The
government's new law, the Code on Wages Act, 2019 will ensure that workers from
all industries are entitled to receive minimum wages fixed by various state
governments. Earlier, workers belonging to a set of industries (40 per cent of
the entire workforce) were eligible to receive minimum wages. The new Act,
which became a law in August 2019, also prescribes a set formula to fix minimum
wages, but it has not come into effect yet.
For the
central government employees, the minimum wage rate is Rs 21,000 a month. In
India, minimum wage across states has wide variations. For instance, it is Rs
1,794 a month in Arunachal Pradesh and Telangana but Rs 8,476 in Haryana and Rs
9,100 in Chandigarh, as of November 2018. The central government has fixed a
floor of Rs 9,750 a month for minimum wages.
Additionally,
the unions have demanded ‘worker’ status to all scheme workers, such as the
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and those who work in providing
mid-day meals in schools. Since these workers are not officially categorised as
‘workers’, they are not protected by most labour laws in the country.
The unions
have asked for a minimum monthly pension of Rs 6,000, up from Rs 1,000. It had
earlier demanded a minimum monthly pension of Rs 3,000. A six-time hike in the
minimum pension to workers will require a huge budgetary support from the Union
government – a key reason why it has not accepted any demand to hike the
minimum pension as yet.
Other
demands of the unions include a halt in the merger process of 12 public sector
banks, no disinvestment and strategic sales of the central public sector units
and bar on employing contract workers for ‘perennial nature of work.’
In a joint
statement issued on Monday, the unions said, “The attitude of the Government is
that of contempt towards labour as we construe from its policies and actions.
It is more than 4 years since the last Indian Labour Conference (ILC) was held
in July 2015. The last meeting of the Group of Ministers constituted to discuss
the 12-point charter of demands was held in August 2015. Since then nothing
proceeded in that regard.”
The ILC,
often known as the Labour Parliament of India, is an important forum where
industry, trade unions and government officials sit together to iron out key
issues and it is usually inaugurated by the Prime Minister.
Charter
of Demands for Strike
1. Urgent
measures for containing price-rise through universalisation of public
distribution system and banning speculative trade in commodity market.
3. Stop
anti-worker codification of Labour laws in the name of “Ease of Doing
Business”. Ensure strict enforcement of all existing basic labour Laws without
any exception or exemption and stringent punitive measures for violation of
labour laws.
4. Universal
social security coverage for all workers.
5. Minimum
wages of not less than Rs 21,000/- per month with provisions of indexation.
6. Give
“Worker” status to all Scheme workers as per the unanimous ILC recommendation
and pay them wages and all benefits like the government employees.
7. Assured
enhanced pension not less than Rs.6, 000/- p.m. for the entire working
population.
8. Stop
disinvestment and strategic sale of Central/State PSUs. Stop merger of Public
Sector Banks and strictly recover the NPA loans of the Corporates.
9. Stop of
contracting out/outsourcing permanent perennial work and ensure payment of same
wage and benefits for contract workers as regular workers for same and similar
work.
10. Removal
of all ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, provident fund;
Increase the
quantum of gratuity.
11.
Compulsory registration of trade unions within a period of 45 days from the
date of submitting application; and immediate ratification of ILO Conventions C
87 and C 98.
12. Stop FDI
in Railways, Insurance, Coal and Defense Sectors.
13. Give
complete loan waiver and Guarantee remunerative prices for agricultural
products.
Khalid Bhatti
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