Press
Release 26th August 2016
Foil
the Conspiracy to Distract the Countrywide United Struggle
March
Ahead to Massive Countrywide General Strike on 2nd September 2016
Centre of Indian Trade Unions
denounces the dubious conspiratorial move by the Govt to sabotage the
countrywide General Strike on 2nd September 2016 called jointly by
almost all the Central Trade Unions in the country along with all the
independent national federations of the employees of banks, insurance, defence,
telecom state and central govt departments against the anti-worker, anti-people
policies of the Govt pushing the lives of the working people at large as well
as the national economy to the path of disaster.
Despite continued persuasion by all
the Central Trade Unions for sorting out the 12 point charter of demands
involving demands of not only the workers but the entire common-folk, the Govt
of India adopted an arrogant non-responsive attitude while unilaterally taking
one after another step towards imposing retrograde changes on the rights and
working conditions of the workers, ignoring the oppositions of all the Central Trade
Unions and federations including BMS.
Despite announcement for countrywide
General Strike on 2nd September 2016 as back as on March 30, 2016 by
all the Central Trade Unions and National Federations in the country except
BMS, the Group of Ministers formed by the Govt for the purpose did not
bother to even call the concerned Central Trade Unions for any discussion.
On the other hand, the Govt started confiding on the same issues of the General
strike with its non-striking ally, seeking to create an impression as if the
Govt is responding to the demands of the workers. This is nothing but a
conspiracy to create confusion and foil the forthcoming strike. It must be
retorted back effectively.
On so called Labour law reforms
which are designed to push overwhelming majority of workers out of the coverage
of basic labour laws, introduce “hire and fire”, legitimize contractorisation
of regular work and promote work at payment of less than minimum wage, etc, the
Govt repeated its stale statement that same will be done through tripartite
consultation. In fact does such tripartite consultation make any sense where
the unanimous opinion of all the central trade unions including BMS is totally
ignored and decision is taken by Govt-employers unholy gang-up? In this process
only, Factory (Amendment)Bill was introduced in Parliament, Small Factories
Bill has been given Cabinet approval, “fixed term employment” is being
introduced through executive order, Provident fund money has been parked at
stock market for gambling, ESI Act is being sought be amended for replacing ESI
by mediclaim products, Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Bill has been introduced in
Parliament to impose atrocious conditions on the road-transport workers
enmasse. Side by side, through the BJP-ruled state govts, mass scale retrograde
changes in all labour laws have already been put in place in Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra etc. Hence all talks of tripartite consultation
is nothing but a fraud and farce.
The entire trade union movement of
the country, irrespective of affiliations condemns and denounces such
anti-democratic conspiratorial design of the Govt and calls upon the working
people of all affiliations to give a fitting reply to such dubious conspiracy
of the strike breakers by making the Countrywide General Strike on 2nd
September 2016 a massive success.
Issued by
(TAPAN
SEN)
General
Secretary
CITU
Reply to the Minister for Labour:
27th August 2016
Dear Shri Bandaru Dattatreya ji,
This refers to your D.O No. 21(24)/2016-IR dated Nil requesting
reconsideration of the proposed strike call on 2nd September 2016
given jointly by the Central Trade Unions in view of the “proactive steps
undertaken by the Government to address the charter of demands raised by the
Central Trade Unions”. Your letter has been received by us on 26th
August 2016 through e-mail.
At the outset, we are constrained to mention that we find no tangible
‘proactive steps’ in the details furnished by you, either in your letter or in
the enclosed updated status of action taken, in favour of the workers so far as
the 12 point charter of demands of the Central Trade Unions is concerned. In
fact the ‘updated status’ enclosed with your letter is almost the same as that
you circulated exactly one year ago, in the joint meeting with the central
trade unions held on 26th and 27th August, on the eve of
the general strike in 2015.
But the
government has definitely taken several proactive steps, totally ignoring the
opposition of the entire trade union movement and totally against the interests
of the workers, during this period. To mention just a few: 1) Introduction of
Fixed Term Employment in apparel manufacturing sector through an executive
order, 2) Increase the permissible limit of overtime work from 50 hours per
quarter to 125 hours through an amendment to the Factories Act, 3) Divert
workers’ money in the EPF for investment in the share market, 4) Attempts to
appropriate huge amounts of workers’ money in the EPF for other purposes
unrelated to them, 5) Introduce the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill with
atrocious provisions attacking the road transport workers en masse. All these
‘proactive’ initiatives are against the basic interests of the workers and
their rights. All the central trade unions have vociferously opposed these
measures.
Your argument that ‘the running theme of the Labour Reforms is to
ensure employment security, wage security and social security to all workers’
is totally contrary to reality and the experience of the workers. In fact, the
focus of the so called ‘labour reforms’ has been to push the overwhelming
majority of workers in the organised sector out of the purview of all basic
labour laws including those providing social security. They empower employers
to ‘hire and fire’ at their whims, legitimise contractorisation of regular jobs
and deployment of apprentices/ trainees etc on payment of a small fraction of
minimum wages. It is crystal clear to anybody objectively examining the entire
‘Labour reforms’ programme that it is designed to impose conditions of slavery
on the workers. The conditions of even the miniscule proportion of workers in
the organised sector who are at present entitle to a few benefits will become
insecure, in terms of their employment, wages, social security etc. No trade
union worth its salt can mortgage the interests of the workers by accepting
such retrograde measures lying down.
Moreover, we
cannot accept the claim that all your moves on labour law reforms are the
outcome of tripartite consultations. It is a matter of record that all the
central trade unions, repeat all, have unanimously opposed many of your
proposals of labour-law-reforms and opinions of the trade unions have been
totally ignored undermining the spirit of tripartism. Ignoring labour’s opinion
on the measures by which labour will be affected most cannot be construed as
consultation, which we urge upon you to appreciate.
We request you to verify your claim that ‘labour inspection system
through the Shram Suvidha Portal has improved efficiency and transparency and
expanded coverage’ with facts. Your own statement that only 12 lakh units have
been issued Labour Identification Number (LIN) itself contradicts and refutes
your claim. This is only an insignificant percentage of the total number of
establishments in the country. While the data of establishments and workers
captured by your Shram Suvidha Portal itself is insignificant compared to
the total, routing inspection through this portal on the basis of 10%
randomised selection is nothing but an attempt to minimise inspection and allow
more freedom to employers to violate labour laws with impunity. It is strange,
to say the minimum, to claim this as expanding coverage. To give a few
examples: The total number of subscribers to EPF is only 3.71 crore while as
per gross estimate another 3 crore workers in the organised sector itself,
mostly contract workers are not covered by EPF, despite being legally eligible.
ESI coverage is even less at 2.03 crore despite the fact that all
establishments employing 10 or more are entitled to be covered by ESI while it
is 20 in the case of EPF. These are just two examples of the horrible state of
affairs related to implementation of labour laws and social security coverage.
The basic purpose of the ongoing ‘labour reforms’ is to legalise and legitimise
violations to ensure ‘ease of doing businesses. You will kindly appreciate that
no trade union worth its salt can sell out the interests of the workers by
accepting this situation lying down.
Claims are being made to extend coverage of social security
schemes like EPF and ESI to scheme workers since last more than a year. But what
has actually happened till date? For example, ESIC proposed to cover the scheme
workers viz., anganwadi and mid-day-meal workers to provide limited benefit on
payment of Rs250/- per month which means 8.33% of the paltry honorarium of
anganwadi workers, 16% for the helpers and 25% for the mid-day-meal workers.
Whereas for other workers covered under ESI Act, the contribution is only 1.75%
of their monthly wages for full ESI benefits. Can the anganwadis and other
scheme workers afford such high burden of contribution out of their paltry
honorarium ranging from Rs 1000/- to Rs 3000/-? This is nothing but a posture
made by the Govt for publicity and real game is to deny them the actual
coverage through backdoor.
Your statement that ‘disinvestment is being made to bring in
efficiency’ and FDI ‘for infusion of capital’, is also unacceptable since that
does not stand the test of rationality. The government today is, clearly, not
confining itself to ‘disinvestment’. It is reported that NITI Ayog has prepared
a list of 74 PSUs including the highly profit making ones for total sell out in
the name of ‘strategic sale’. The government has not issued any rejoinders to
these reports. No patriotic trade union, for that matter, no patriotic
organisation can accept this policy of sell out of PSUs which hold the
foundation of our national economy. Similarly, unrestricted FDI in defence,
railways, banks and insurance and retail trade cannot be accepted by us, as it
is against the greater interest of our people and the national economy.
In view of the above, it is not possible for us to reconsider the
decision to go for countrywide general strike on 2nd September 2016,
which we request you to kindly take note of.
In this connection, we also convey our strong protest against the
discriminatory treatment meted out to the central trade unions by the
government, while openly patronising one. It is highly regrettable and shocking
that the Group of Ministers formed by the government to discuss with the
central trade unions on the 12 point charter of demands, of which you are also
a member, is patronising and confiding with one union which is not a party to
the call for general strike by holding discussions with it, while the central
trade unions which have given the strike notice are ignored. We denounce such
undemocratic bias on the part of the government, which is unprecedented in post
independent India.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
(TAPAN SEN)
General
Secretary
CITU
Shri Bandaru
Dattatreya
Hon’ble
Minister of Labour & Employment
Govt of India
Shram Shakti
Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110001
PRESS
RELEASE
29 August 2016
ISSUES BEFORE THE 2ND SEPTEMBER 2016 GENERAL
STRIKE
CONTRACT LABOUR IN VARIOUS INDUSTRIES – SOME FACTS
A
study done by CITU through its affiliated federations in various key industrial
sectors of the country has starkly revealed the wretched conditions of contract
labour and the increasing use of this evil system by employers – both public
and private – to extract the last drop of blood and sweat from workers to
maximize their profit margins. Explaining the decade old trend of declining
wage share over net value added and profits, the study shows that in all the
sectors, there is an increasing share of contract workers and they are paid
wages that are often one third of their regular co-workers. This forms one of
the foundation stones on which profit is made by corporate entities. This
division is also used to drive a wedge between workers, though this has notably
failed as shown by the fact that the organized trade unions of the country
(except the one associated with the ruling party) have taken up the struggle of
contract workers and it forms a key demand for which a countrywide strike is
going to be held on 2 September 2016. Below are given key findings of the
study, sector by sector
Steel
Of
the total 5 lakh workers in steel industry, about 1.2 lakh or 25% are regular
workers while the remaining 3.8 lakh are contract workers. Public sector steel
units employ about 35% of workers while the private sector employs the rest. In
public sector units 50% of workers are on contract while in private sector, about
90% are on contract.
In
the public sector units, average wage of a workers will be about Rs.40,000 per
month for a regular workers. But a contract worker may get as less as Rs.8000
to Rs.8500, although some may get more.
Steel
industry is passing through a crisis. Now that the industry is integrated with
global markets, fall in global demand and prices of steel and the government’s
failure to protect the domestic industry has led to a wave of closures
engulfing it and the smaller units suffering the most. Over 70 steel plants
have shut down in Chhattisgarh while 65 units have closed out of 103 units in
Raniganj belt in West Bengal. In Karnataka, Odisha and Punjab too a similar
situation exists.
Road
Transport
This
is a massive sector in terms of employment with an estimated 4.5 crore workers,
90% of them in the unorganized sector. Workers include truck/lorry/bus drivers
and auto drivers. Included are about 9 lakh workers in State Transport
companies. Since most of the workers are in the unorganized sector, they are
denied any labour law coverage and hence do not get minimum wages, ESI or PF
facilities or pension, and have no job security.
On
an average a truck/lorry driver gets about Rs.6500-7000 monthly wage while auto
drivers earn about Rs.100-150 per day after deducting expenses like fuel,
maintenance and rentals.
Water
Transport
This
sector includes port and dock workers at the 11 major ports of the country and
many smaller ports and docks along the coastline. The 11 major public sector
ports and docks employ about 65,000 workers while about 3 lakh contract workers
are employed for cargo handling, stevedores and other work.
A
regular workers gets, on an average, Rs.40,000 per month while the contract
workers get about Rs.8000 monthly wage.
For
the past 16 years there has been no recruitment of regular workers. Because of
this policy, number of regular workers has declined from about 1.7 lakh in 2000
to the present 65,000. Government is bringing a new law in order to privatize
govt. owned ports and docks, sell off land, coropratise the Port Trusts and use
surplus funds.
Electricity
This
vital sector employs about 22 lakh workers of which about 10 lakh are regular
workers while 12 lakh are contract workers. Workers include employees of State
Electricity Boards, power generation companies, both public and private, and
distribution companies.
A
regular unskilled worker may get an average wage of about Rs.15,000 while a
skilled worker will get up to Rs.30,000. But a contract worker doing same kind
of work will get just one-third of this.
The
sector has seen considerable privatization over the years. Currently it is
passing through a crisis because out of an installed capacity of about 2.8 lakh
megawatt only about 1.5-1.7 lakh megawatt is being produced. This is because
power consumption is flagging as industries are in a slowdown. This is having
seriously damaging impact on power workers with contract workers not being able
to get work.
Construction
One
of the biggest in terms of employment the construction sector, ranging from
brick kilns to giant construction projects like hydroelectric projects and
roads, employs 5-7 crore persons. Except for the regular employees of some big
construction companies, most of the workers are unorganized and contractual.
There is also a big proportion of self-employed construction workers who take
up small jobs like building dwelling units.
Wages
vary widely across states ad type of work, with Rs.250 to Rs.600 per day for
unskilled work and Rs.350 to Rs.1000 for skilled work.
Although
various laws relating to construction workers have been enacted, providing for
a welfare fund, and making builders responsible for providing housing etc., all
this remains on paper. A 1% cess was supposed to be collected from the
builders/contractors for spending on welfare of construction workers. Since
1996, Rs.70,270 crore should have been collected till 2016. But only Rs.26,962
crore or 38% was collected and out of that only Rs.5685 crore or 21% was spent.
With government moves on allowing foreign capital to flow freely in
construction, the situation will get worse.
Plantation
There
are several types of plantations in the country – tea, coffee, rubber, coconut,
cardamom, cashew etc. Most tea plantations are in Assam and W.Bengal while all
others are in South India. An estimated 20 lakh workers are employed in these
plantations, about 55-60% of them being women. About 10-12 lakh are regular
employees while 8-10 lakh are contract workers. During heavy seasonal work,
family members of workers also join in.
On
an average the daily wage is Rs.132 for regular workers. In addition they get
various facilities like housing, healthcare etc. and some firewood and rice
(till NFSA started). Contract workers may get about the same cash amount but no
other facilities. Most of them don’t get bonus or PF. The unions have been
struggling for at least Rs.423 per day minimum wage for several years but TMC
govt. in Bengal and first Congress and now BJP govt in Assam have been dilly-dallying.
Women workers specific facilities like maternity leave entitlements are not
implemented fully.
There
has been a restructuring of the tea-garden ownership pattern in the past few
years with several small gardens cropping up after the closure of 135 gardens
in 2003-04. These are run by growers who may be propped up by larger entities.
Although the tea market is growing steadily yet the workers in plantations are
still suffering from low wages and job insecurity.
Petroleum
& Gas
This
sector employs 1.65 lakh workers in public sector enterprises. About 65,000
(40%) are regular workers while 1 lakh (60%) are contract workers.There are no
details available for workforce in the private sector.
On
an average a regular worker will get Rs.30,000 basic wage with various other
benefits and allowances. The contract worker gets the minimum wage of the state
in which he/she is employed and an additional 10% or other facilities. In some
places even the minimum wage is not paid. Minimum wages vary from Rs.5000 to
Rs.14,000 per month across states.
|
Contract Labour: Slavery for Workers
|
||||
|
Steel
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
5 lakh
|
Regular
|
40,000
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
75%
|
Contract
|
8500
|
|
|
Road Transport
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
4.5 crore
|
Regular
|
20,000
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
90%
|
Contract
|
7000
|
|
|
Water Transport
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
3.65 lakh
|
Regular
|
40,000
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
82%
|
Contract
|
8000
|
|
|
Electricity
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
22 lakh
|
Regular
|
15,000
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
55%
|
Contract
|
5000
|
|
|
Construction
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
5-7 crore
|
Regular
|
na
|
|
|
Contract/self-employed workers
|
app. 95%
|
Contract
|
6500 to 18000
|
|
|
Coal
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
6 lakh
|
Regular
|
27,000
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
Around 50%
|
Contract
|
13000
|
|
|
Plantation
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
20 Lakh
|
Regular
|
3452+Housing+Facilities
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
40-50%
|
Contract
|
3432
|
|
|
Petroleum & Gas
|
||||
|
|
Av. Wage (Rs./month)
|
|||
|
Total Workers
|
1.65 lakh
|
Regular
|
30,000 + perks
|
|
|
Contract workers
|
60%
|
Contract
|
5000 to 14000
|
|
|
Source: SWFI, RTWFI, WTWFI, EWFI, CWFI, CWFI, PWFI, PGWFI
|
||||
Issued
by:
(TAPAN
SEN)
General Secretary
CITU
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