People's Democracy

National Labour Commission Recommendations:

CITU Calls For Resisting Onslaught on Labour

The CITU expressed concern over the manner in which the report of the 2^nd National Commission on Labour (NLC) is not being made public by the government despite its submission to the government on June 29. Whatever sketchy report carried by the national dailies about the content of the recommendations made by the NLC, makes it apparent that the 2^nd NLC has practically given the stamp of its recommendations on the already declared text of the so called ‘labour law reform’ announced by the finance minister in his budget speech of 2001, the CITU secretariat observed in a statement issued on July 3.

"The National Labour Commission has completely okayed the government move to bestow practically total liberty to the employers in respect of retrenchment of workers, closure of units and deployment of contract labour in all kinds of work as reported by the press. Exemption from the provision of government clearance for retrenchment/closure was given to all establishments employing upto 300 workers (from the present level of 100) thus pushing out more than 90 per cent of the factories/establishments and around 70 per cent of the workforce in the organised sector out of the purview of labour legislation. And in case of lay-offs exceeding one month even in the units employing more than 300, no prior clearance from the government is required and employers are allowed to apply for clearance post facto. And so far compensation is concerned, the Commission echoed almost the same as already made public by the government (or even worse in some cases) which can in no way compensate for job-loss of the workers. And the so called ‘safeguards’ provided for the contract-work bears no tangible meaning.

The Commission’s recommendations also include drastic curtailment of holidays, and increase in working hours as the press reports reveal. Further the Commission recommended for taking out the workers in supervisory categories irrespective of wage level out of the purview of labour laws. It has recommended a single labour law in lieu of Industrial Disputes Act, Trade Union Act and Industrial Employment (Standing Order) Act and also repeal of other Acts relating to wage fixation.", noted the CITU statement.

The CITU called upon the trade unions and the mass of the workers irrespective of affiliations to resolutely resist the offensive being planned by the government on the entire working people at the behest of the employers lobby, both domestic and foreign, through countrywide united action.