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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Govt faces spectre of second industrial action this year
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Govt faces spectre of second industrial action this year

Unions are gearing up for a strike on 2 September to protest changes in labour laws

The government recently put in place new labour laws that will create a more enabling environment for transacting business. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
The government recently put in place new labour laws that will create a more enabling environment for transacting business. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: In what seems like a sequel to the biggest industrial action in recent years on 6 January, trade unions across the country are gearing up for a strike on 2 September, this time to protest against changes in labour laws and the land acquisition bill.

During the two-day strike in January, half-a-million coal miners walked off the job, disrupting supplies to power plants and leading to consequent outages in parts of the country. Production and movement of coal across Asia’s third largest economy came to a grinding halt.

Worried that the strike call given for next month may further put stress on the labour-government relations, the centre is trying to resolve the impasse.

A labour ministry official said a group of ministers, including labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, is likely to meet “all stakeholders" before 30 August.

The strike as scheduled on 2 September stands, said D.L. Sachdeva, national secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).

Sachdeva added that the group of ministers, led by finance minister Arun Jaitley, has listened to them once, but no solution has come in sight.

The call for strike has been given by all major trade unions, including Centre of Indian Trade Unions, All India United Trade Union Centra, All India Central Council of Trade Unions, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Trade Union Coordination Committee and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). Interestingly, BMS is backed by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideological arm Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

“The government has been over-busy in amending all labour laws to empower the employers with unfettered rights to ‘hire and fire’ and stripping the workers and trade unions of all their rights and benefits, besides aggressively pushing through almost unlimited FDI (foreign direct investment) in strategic sectors such as railways, defence and financial sector," the National Convention of Workers said in a statement.

“Also, through sweeping changes in the existing land acquisition Act, farmers’ right to land and agri-workers’ right to livelihood are being sought to be drastically curbed and curtailed," it added.

The move comes in the backdrop of Parliament’s inability to pass the land acquisition bill—meant to boost manufacturing capacity by changing the way land is acquired and compensation is paid—in the monsoon session.

“This will be a huge nationwide protest with participation from all sectors—both manufacturing and services. All national trade unions have met several times in between and individually too to chalk out the plan and take to the streets. If the government is not ready to listen directly, then workers are ready to hit the road," Sachdeva said, adding that the labour ministry may call a meeting with unions sometime next week to discuss the issue.

Given the fragile relationship involved, the BJP-led government has hit the pause button on labour reforms. This follows criticism from both opposition parties and the civil society for not holding consultations on the contentious land acquisition legislation, which led to the labour ministry’s inability to push for any fresh labour reforms in the washed-out monsoon session.

Parliament has given its assent to amend two key labour laws—Apprentices Act, 1961, and the Labour Laws (exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments) Act, 1988. An amendment to the Factories Act, 1948, has also been tabled in Parliament. Besides, the government wants to merge 44 central labour laws into four labour codes.

The government recently put in place new labour laws that will create a more enabling environment for transacting business. The reworking of the labour laws is consistent with the BJP-led government’s approach, first spelt out in the 2014 budget, to streamline rules and regulations to create a better business environment. In the budget session of Parliament, it eliminated a tranche of outdated laws and is now awaiting the recommendations of a high-level panel to initiate another round.

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Published: 21 Aug 2015, 12:10 AM IST
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