Farce called
"labour reforms", combined with "ease of doing business"
has unleashed a capitalist onslaught on workers across the nation.
New Delhi, May 1: ‘May Day’ is celebrated on the first day of May in India. In the
western world, it is observed on the first Monday of May. While the proletariat festival
has much more relevance in mature economies, in India it is merely considered
as yet another ‘bank holiday’. Except for the aging section of Indian
communists, May Day has no worth left among the Indian youth. Although free-marketists
would argue that there are no labour atrocities in India to make the workers
glorify such anarchist celebrations, but such assumptions are far from truth.
The greatest tragedy of
labour movement in India is that majority of the blue-collared, as well as
white-collared workers, belong to the unorganized sector. Unions have been
demonized in a disproportionate manner. Due to the dwindling number of employee
unions, the amount of exploitation is escalating. With the massive unemployment
rate in the nation, and successive government resorting to
market-fundamentalism, the capitalists are more confident than ever to show
apathy towards the condition of the actual producers. The inequality in income
is widening, and the share of profit is hardly transferred to the lower rungs
of the company ladder.
To understand the
deteriorating condition of Indian labour, one must divide the proletariat into
three parts – the blue-collared workers, who mostly indulge in physical labour,
the white-collared workers, the ones employed in offices to use analytical
skills and contribute towards the cycle of production, and third is the
domestic labour.
While there are no end to
the woes of domestic labour, the condition of blue-collared workers
deteriorated after the economic liberalization of 1991, which led to the
dilution of unions. Meanwhile, the white-collared workers belong mostly to the
bourgeois class, which fail to unite for a common cause due to their
middle-class apprehensions and lumpenteriat tendencies.
Farce called ‘labour
reforms’
To launch a capitalist
onslaught, the Narendra Modi government coined a special term ‘labour reforms’.
Under the proposed amendments in the Labour Reform Bill, the government intends
to create a framework which would allow companies to treat their employees as
per their whims and fancies. As per the proposed amendments, factory owners
would not need the approval of government to remove less than 300 employees at
once. Unions would not be allowed to registered, unless they have the support
of 30 per cent employees. Earlier, the minimum support base was 15 per cent.
Factories Act would apply on only those companies which has hired more than 50
employees. The earlier limit for exemption was 20.
The proposed labour law
also intends to increase the limit of overtime from 50 hours per quarter to 100
hours. While overtime is a discouraged practice since it violates the 8-hour
working principle, companies were given the option to make their employees work
overtime upto 50 hours in a quarter (3 months), provided they are paid one and
a half times of what they are paid for regular hours. However, this overtime
limit is now expected to be increased to 100.
The ‘reforms’ made in the
Apprentices Act, 1961 are even more alarming, and have ended up grabbing the
concern of Workers’ solidarity movements across the world. As per the proposed
changes, the number of hours of work to be undertaken from the apprentice would
solely be decided the company. The wages and the kind of work to be undertaken
would also be decided solely by the management. The kind of training provided
to the apprentice would be decided arbitrarily by the company. Earlier, the
Labour Ministry had to be informed about the details of the training programme.
And most importantly, the management can also keep apprentice without giving
them holidays.
Apart from the above
so-called reforms, the Labour Ministry has also opined to strike down
labour-security laws such as Minimum Wages Act (1948), Payment of Wages Act
(1965), Bonus Payment Act (1965) and Equal Wages Act (1976).
The icing to the cake is
that the government would no-longer assign labour inspectors to take stock of
the condition of employees in production units. In other words, Centre has
given a free-hand to exploitation in the best manner possible. Doesn’t this
seem to be the payback time for those who financed the massive electoral
campaigns?
India Inc geared up to
suck the blood of ignorant Indian workforce
Those who hold proximity
with the establishment have used hook and crook methods to implement their
neo-liberal market agenda in the nation. While the draconian ‘Labour Reform’
bill is stuck in the Parliament, the legislative assemblies in various states
have adopted the anti-labour measures to please the market players. BJP-ruled
Rajasthan was the first state to introduce the amendments.
“Government is working on
the agenda of ‘ease of doing’ business. This would boost investment – both
global and domestic. Our manufacturing output would increase on a whole. This
would strengthen our economy and make our products globally competitive,” said
FICCI director general Arvind Prasad.
However, the labour
unions, including the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, have launched a
nationwide protest against the anti-poor, anti-labour policies of the
government. “Just because they (Centre) have a full majority, they cannot take
decisions arbitrarily. They have to be accountable. We will not allow the
labour reforms to happen, especially those related to ‘hire and fire’
amendments,” said BMS secretary Brajesh Upadhyay.
“The proposed changed of
NDA government is set to nullify the rigorous efforts undertaken by socialists
since pre-colonial era to improve the working condition of labours. Already,
the companies show blatant disregard in following the 8-hour working day norm.
With this Labour Reform bill, Centre is licensing them to exploit their
workforce,” said CITU, the union affiliated to Communist Party of India
(Marxist).
With the kind of pessimism
prevailing within India’s working population, combined with the apathy shown by
those in power, the slogans of Lal
Salaam would begin to echo outside the University campuses as
well. If that happens, then the so-called ‘regressive Left’ would be on a path
of recovery. As seen in the post-structural era, labourers, unlike peasants,
have a tendency to unite for a common struggle and initiate a bloodstained
revolution to overturn the establishment.
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