Workers across sectors and regions in India have taken to the streets to oppose the extreme-right-wing government’s decision to implement four new labor codes. The protesters have deemed the codes anti-labor and demanded their immediate withdrawal.
In several cities, workers took out protest marches and burned the copies of the labor codes. Unions and progressive groups have warned of larger protests to oppose the legislation.
The four labor codes in question were adopted by the Indian parliament in 2019. Yet their implementation has so far been suspended due to the strong opposition by all major trade unions in the country. In a surprising move on Friday, November 21, the far-right Narendra Modi-led government notified that the codes would advance.
In a barrage of press releases since then, the government has defended the codes, calling them an attempt to simplify the laws which have been in existence since the British colonial days and a move to “inclusive and sustainable labor empowerment”.
However, in a joint statement issued on Friday, a joint platform of the Central Trade Unions (CTU) called the government’s decision to implement the codes a pro-corporate move and a “deceptive fraud committed against the working people of the nation”.
“The arbitrary and undemocratic notification of the four so-called ‘labor codes’ defies all democratic ethos and has wrecked the character of the welfare state of India to rubbles,” the CTU statement adds, demanding their immediate withdrawal.
Trade unions claim the new codes will weaken unionization, the right to collective bargaining, and restrictions on working hours, to benefit corporations. Unions have vowed to intensify the struggle against these codes.
CTUs will also join a nationwide protest call made by the farmers on November 26, to push for the withdrawal of the codes, among other demands.
Government is trying to mislead the workers
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of the largest trade union federations in the country and a part of the CTU, also condemned the government’s move alleging that it is trying to mislead the working class in the country by falsely portraying them to be in their interest.
In reality, the codes “constitute the most sweeping and aggressive abrogation of workers’ hard-won rights and entitlements since independence, aimed at facilitating corporate exploitation, contractualization and unrestrained hire and fire,” a CITU press release on Saturday said.
Among other things, the government’s press releases claim the codes were brought in order to unify 39 different laws enacted to protect the working class in the country, such as the Industrial Disputes Act and Factories Act, among others.
The government also claims to provide universal social security for all workers and minimum wage coverage, among other benefits through codes.
It provides for a floor national wage, longer shifts in factories and night shifts for women, claiming it will guarantee minimum wages and women’s empowerment.
CITU’s press release, however, makes a point-by-point rebuttal to the government’s claims, pointing out that these codes actually strengthen the employers’ control over workers by weakening their right to collective bargaining and other such rights.
The new codes allegedly weaken the protective institutions (such as labor commissions and labor inspectors) created after years of struggle, legitimize contractualization with the “fixed-term” provision, and paves the way for the government to withdraw from its roles and responsibilities as executive of the labor laws.
The new codes turn the government into a mere facilitator between the employers and the employees which, CITU claims, would make fighting for workers rights difficult.
Codes eradicate labor rights
Trade unions and left parties have claimed that in order to protect corporate interests the Modi government has defied basic democratic norms and institutions in the country and made an arbitrary decision to eradicate rights which were won after generations of sacrifices.
Opposition parties claimed that the Modi government has adopted an arrogant approach in implementing the codes. It failed to conduct proper consultation with all the stakeholders, and sidelined all political opposition in the country in the Parliament while passing the law.
“The government ignored every major objection raised by trade unions. The codes were pushed through Parliament without the opposition present, making a mockery of democratic process,” CITU reiterated in the press release.
Read More: Tens of thousands of workers in Karnataka mobilize in historic five-day protest against anti-labor policies
CITU proclaimed that “the four codes are an instrument of corporate driven labor market deregulation, aimed at destroying job security, suppressing the right to strike, dismantling labor inspection, expanding contractualization and fixed term employment, weakening unions and collective bargaining.”
The so-called universal social security for workers claimed by the government is nothing but a way to limit “social security to token schemes” it said.
The objective behind all this is “a mad drive of minimization of labor cost and dismantling labor rights,” CITU claims.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued a statement supporting the trade unions’ demand for the revocation of the labor codes.
Read More: Indian workers demand withdrawal of pro-corporate labor codes, prepare for a national strike on July 9
“The government’s claim that the labor codes will boost employment and investment is completely baseless. The codes are designed to leave labor unprotected in the face of the onslaught of capital. Their aim is to lure national and international capital by ensuring that all meaningful regulations covering various aspects of labor rights will be nullified,” CPI (M) said in the statement.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella group of farmers unions in the country, also condemned the new codes in a statement on Monday. It called the codes the “most regressive labor reform since the independence” of the country in 1947.
The post Unions in India demand immediate withdrawal of new “anti-worker” labor codes appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
From Peoples Dispatch via this RSS feed