FIXED TERM EMPLOYMENT WORKMEN

Central TUs Say ‘Revoke This Notification’

EIGHT central trade unions – AITUC, CITU, HMS, INTUC, AICCTU, TUCC, UTUC and UTUC(LS) – have in a joint statement condemned the Vajpayee government’s notification introducing a new classification of ‘fixed term employment workman’ by way of an amendment to the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rules, 1946.

Apprehending that this move of the government will promote widespread casualisation of workforce and result in gradual elimination of the permanent workmen’s category itself in most of the establishments, the unions have demanded immediate revocation of the notification issued on December 10, 2003.

They also felt that the government had clearly bypassed the Parliament by amending the Schedule, which was part of the legislation enacted by the Parliament. “It can only be amended with the express consent of the Parliament and not by an administrative fiat”, they stated.

Even though the matter pertained to industrial relations policy, the government had unilaterally issued a preliminary notification on September 4, 2003 without consulting trade unions. Following strong protest from the unions, the government convened a meeting on November 12, 2003 to discuss this issue. The trade unions, without exception, conveyed their total objection to the introduction of such a new classification of workmen. They also condemned the government for “throwing to winds all ethos of tripartism and reducing the consultation process to a mockery.”

However, the government ignored these views and proceeded to issue this notification on December 10, 2003 – the copies of which reached the trade unions only recently.

As per the Industrial Employment Standing Orders, workmen are already classified as permanent, probationer, badli, temporary, casual and apprentice. The amendment has brought in such workmen who are ‘engaged on the basis of contract of employment for a fixed period’ in the definition of the ‘fixed term employment workman’. This will result in indiscriminate contractual appointments for any number of ‘fixed terms’ in jobs, including those which are of perennial and permanent nature. This will immensely harm the interests of the workers.

The unions have made it clear that this amendment is nothing but a way of introducing a ‘hire and fire’ regime in industrial employment. “It will only help the employers to engage a workman on ‘fixed term employment’ for any length of time, without ever making him permanent, by resorting to perpetual renewal of the ‘contract of employment for a fixed period’. 

W R Varada Rajan (CITU) D L Sachdeva (AITUC), R A Mittal (HMS), Chandidas Sinha (INTUC) Swapan Mukherjee (AICCTU), S C Gaur (TUCC), Abani Roy (UTUC) and Achinta Sinha of UTUC(LS) were signatories to the joint statement, which was issued on January 3.