People's Democracy

41st INDIAN LABOUR CONFERENCE

Tapan Sen

THE 41st session of Indian Labour Conference held on 27-28 April 2007 at New Delhi ended with more sound-bytes and little substance. The agenda of the conference were 1) Strengthening of Labour Laws to prevent violation, 2) Payment of Bonus Act, 3) Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act and 4) Measures to increase Employability of Youth as decided by the Standing Labour Committee in its meeting held on December 2006.

The CITU delegation to the ILC comprised of Dr M K Pandhe, President, Md Amin, Acting General Secretary and Kali Ghosh, Tapan Sen, Hemalata and Dipankar Mukherjee, all Secretaries of CITU.

The ILC started with presentation of Prime Minister’s Shram awards to workers in different industries. Prime Minister in his inaugural speech while stressing upon the need for ‘all the three arms of the tripartite edifice of the industrial economy’ to work together ‘for the nation to move forward’ ended up insisting only the trade unions ‘to be as committed to the task of generating new employment as it is to the responsibility of protecting the interests of those already working. But he did not utter a single word advising employers to respect at least the labour laws, which are being desperately violated by them in most of the workplaces in the country. More than sixty per cent of the workforce in the organized sector itself being denied even the statutory minimum wages could not create any concern in the mind of Prime Minister at all. Regrettable indeed!

Dr M K Pandhe, President CITU while making his opening remarks pointed out to the above onesidedness of the Prime Minister’s approach and stressed upon that the Govts must retrace its policy of patronage to violation of labour laws by the employers in the workplace by way of keeping the enforcement machinery nonfunctional while letting the police force repressing the workers and their unions for demanding implementation of basic labour laws. It is surprising the police force responsible for upholding the rule of law have been generally working as private security-men for the law-violating employers and union activists demanding payment of minimum wages as per statute are being booked under section 307 cr PC (attempt to murder) in various workplaces in the country, Pandhe said. The continuance of such a situation would inevitably lead to a reign of anarchy in the workplaces, which is not at all a healthy symptom so far as the maintenance of industrial harmony, Pandhe asserted. The Govt must stop lamenting on the so called ‘inspector raj’ and strengthen and activate the law-enforcement machinery to see that all basic labour laws are implemented and the dubious systems of ‘self-certification and exemptions’ are done away with. Pandhe also insisted on urgent steps for removal of ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, increase in the rate of interest on provident fund and stop deployment of contract workers in permanent and perennial work. Pandhe also pointed out the serious acts of omission by the UPA Govt in fulfilling the coomitment made in NCMP on the enactment of a comprehensive legislation for the workers of unorganized sector and demanded immediate step in that direction.

Most of leaders from other trade unions echoed almost the same opinion. Employers’ group, as usual, defended their misdeeds of labour-law violations pleading that the labour laws themselves have become unworkable and the Central Govt representatives remained a silent spectator. Many of State Govts in their intervention, pointed to the inadequacies of the existing labour laws particularly in respect of provisions of disciplining the offender employers and suggested for making the penalties and punishments for violation more stringent and empowering the labour department official to initiate recovery process instead of banking on time consuming judicial forums. P K Gurudasan, Labour Minister of Kerala expressed grave concern over the situation of non-implementation of labour laws and stressed the need for strengthening the enforcement machinery to ensure strict compliance of labour laws. He also expressed his strong dispproval to the system of self-certification by employers introduced in some states. Mrinal Banerjee, Labour Minister of West Bengal proposed that “all labour legislation should contain the provision fir Recovery Officers to be appointed by the Labour Department for recovery of money due from an employer through attachment of properties, arrest of the employer and detention in prison etc.” He stated that already a legislation with similar provisions has been passed by West Bengal Assembly and sent for Presidential assent. Many Labour Ministers from the states also pointed to extremely inadequate manpower in the enforcement departments and long pending vacancies of judges in tribunal/labour courts as factors contributing to tardy implementation of labour laws.

CITU submitted its views and comments on the Agenda note circulated by the Union Labour Ministry through a memorandum. CITU denounced the conspiratorial inaction of the Govt in the matter of acting on the consensus decision of the 40th ILC on finalization of the Bill on unorganized sector workers to be worked out by a tripartite committee within a time frame. The Govt while taking no step in that regard went to the extent of questioning the very urgency of such a legislation and shelving the matter for subsequent decision “ to decide whether there is a need for an exhaustive
legislation". (Action Taken Report of 40th ILC presented in the meeting of Standing Labour Committee held in December 2006)

CITU also faulted the Government on its failure to take action to implement the conclusions in respect of amendments to the Minimum Wages Act and the Industrial Disputes Act, where on several points consensus had been arrived at just because there was no agreement on some other issues put forth by the employers. 

On the agenda item "Strengthening of Labour Laws and its effective implementation to prevent violations", the CITU regretted that the agenda note had inverted the thrust of the agenda item by laying emphasis primarily on changes required in the Acts and Rules towards self-certification and flexibilisation, and not on implementations. CITU pointed out in clear terms that in order to end the situation of state-sponsored anarchy in the workplaces through desperate violation of all labour laws, what is required are “1) crying halt to the oft-repeated lament over the 'ills' of the so called "inspector raj" by those in governance; 2) strengthening and widening of the inspection system with adequate manpower and empowering of the inspection agency to impose corrective action for immediate implementation; 3) time-bound disposal of grievances registered with the labour department including time bound disposal of cases by the labour court and empowering the labour court to enforce the decree against the employer with immediate effect; 4) violation of labour laws by the employers to be treated a criminal offence; 5) total ban on granting exemptions to any establishment from the purview of labour laws; 6) universal application of all labour. laws without any restriction based on employment stipulation or income parameters and last but not least 7) bringing the entire workforce in the informal sector under coverage of labour laws.

On Payment Of Bonus Act, 1965, the CITU reiterated its basic stand that the ceilings prescribed in the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 should be abolished. CITU also suggested ceratin concrete changes in the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 and inclusion of contract workers within its purview.

The CITU proposed that the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act 1970 needs to be amended to ensure the following basic requirements:
1) Redefining employment relationship on the basis of the linkage between the final recipients of the gains of production, i.e., the principal employer, vis-à-vis the producer at the lowest rung of the production process deployed through various decentralised agencies. 2) Outsourcing should be treated as contract and should be covered by Contract Labour-Legislation. 3) Reiterating the equal pay for same and similar work both for regular and contract/temporary workers in the main body of the legislation (at present similar provision is there in the rules framed under the present statute. 4) Regularisation of contract workers deployed in permanent/perennial jobs in the permanent roll of the company and stringent punishment (This is required to negate the pernicious impact of the Supreme Court Judgments on rights of the contract workers) 5) Payment of the minimum wage prevalent in the company/establishment to the contract workers of the said company if it is higher than the statutory-Minimum-wage 6) All contractors must obtain license from the appropriate authority for running its operations. 7) Even if contractor changes, the contract workers engaged by previous contractor should continue to be deployed without any interruption and change in service conditions: this provision should be incorporated as a condition in the tender for appointment of contractor. 8) The Annual Return on employment to be submitted to labour department by the principal employer should compulsorily include details of the contract workers including the contractors and their licence-details. 9) In case of death owing to accident or otherwise in course of employment, contract workers should be paid same compensation as the regular-workers 10) The Principal employer should be held responsible for implementation of all labour laws for the contract workers including maintenance of employment register, submission of annual returns to labour department, PF, ESI and other social security measures and workmen's compensation any violation of those laws should attract stringent punishment on the principal employers as well. 11) A separate inspectorate with adequate manpower has to be established in all states only for the purpose for inspection of the contract-employment-related-matters. 12) Contract labour monitoring board must be constituted in all states and central level with the representatives of unions, employers and government to monitor implementation of labour laws in respect of contract workers. etc. 13) Appropriate legislation to negate the pernicious impact of the Supreme Court judgment in setting aside its own judgment (Air India case) in the case Vs SAIL.

On Measures to increase Employability of Youth, the CITU memorandum said: Government policies will have to be directed towards promoting labour intensive and capital saving technology. But this task can obviously not be achieved by depending entirely on the market forces. This requires a change and reversal of the policies of liberalisation and imperialist-globalisation. But even within the present framework, the policy regime needs to focus in skill development of the existing workers whenever any new machinery or technology is introduced. CITU also suggested concrete measures to increase the number of ITI and allied agencies and proper selection of number and varieties of skills to be imparted through these institutions, introduction of short-term training course, review of the minimum qualification for entry in the training institutes including provisions of training for the school drop-outs on selected skills, increase in budgetary allocation on skill development both at centre and state levels etc.

Four conference committees were constituted by the ILC to discuss on the four agenda items to draw a conclusion on each subject.

On the subject of ‘Strengthening Labour Laws to prevent violation’, the consensus were arrived at only on the following points: 1) All labour laws should be implemented effectively, 2) Consolidation of labour laws for effective implementation, 3) implementation of laws should be overseen by bodies of tripartite nature both at Central and State levels. 4) the implementation machinery both in the centre and states need to be strengthened including provision of adequate manpower, modern gadgets and suitable training. Workers group demanded complete ban on the system of self-certification and granting of exemptions and also concrete steps on universal coverage of the entire workforce including unorganized sector by labour law-governance without any restriction based on employment or income stipulations and making more stringent the penalties and punishment for labour law violation, but the employers group, as usual and the governments also did not agree to that.

On Payment of Bonus Act 1965, the workers group insisted for removal of ceilings and effective inclusion of the contract workers as beneficiaries of the Act. The Govt proposed the ceiling of Rs 3500 for calculation of payment and Rs 7500 for eligibility. The workers group, for the sake of clinching the matter for the time being stated that they may agree to Rs 3500 as ceiling for calculation of payment provided the eligibility ceiling is raised to Rs 10000/-. The employers group, while initially resisting the same, ultimately left the matter to the Govt for a decision.

On Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, most interestingly, the tripartite group came to a consensus that “there is a crying need to prevent exploitation of contract labour”, “the Act should be implemented in letter and spirit” and “the regulatory mechanism be further strengthened to ensure that the Act is not flouted”.

The tripartite committee on “Measures to improve employability of youth” suggested, inter alia, that the training schemes should be demand responsive, increase in number of trades in Craftsman Training Scheme, and 25% increase in the seats in different trades in the ITI etc.