All India United Trade Union Centre General Secretary Sankar Saha interacts with ‘Developing India Mirror’ Correspondent Divya Joshi Kumar on a range of issues pertaining to the labour sector
Q. What has been the overall impact of the September 2, 2016 all-India strike called by the trade unions?
A. There was overwhelming support and active participation by approximately 20 crore members of the working class as also the common man.
Q. How do you analyse the absence of the R.S.S.-affiliated B.M.S. from the action plan as was done by them last year?
A. Their absence though unfortunate was not surprising as they support the Centre’s B.J.P.-led dispensation. However, their non-attendance practically had no impact on the agitation; rather the workers of unions affiliated to B.M.S. also joined the bandh in overwhelming numbers.
Q. What were the unions’ demands and the reason for rejecting the N.D.A. government’s sops to call off the strike?
A. The exigencies comprise urgent measures for containing the price rise through universalisation of the Public Distribution System, banning speculative trade in the commodity market; concrete measures for employment generation; strict enforcement of basic labour laws and stringent punitive measures in the event of violation; social security cover for all workers; minimum wages of not less than Rs. 18,000 per month with provisions of indexation; assured enhanced pension not less than Rs. 3,000 per month for the entire working population; stoppage of disinvestment in central / state P.S.U.s and strategic sale; cessation of contractorisation in permanent perennial work and payment of same wage and benefits for contractual workers as regular workers for similar work; removal of ceilings on payment of and eligibility for bonus, Provident Fund; enhancement in gratuity; compulsory registration of trade unions within 45 days from the date of submitting application; immediate ratification of I.L.O. conventions 87 and 98; we are against labour law amendments; opposed to F.D.I. in railways, insurance and defence.
Q. How do you respond to the regime’s claim that it addressed seven of the demands?
A. The assertion is propaganda.
Q. How do you look at Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya’s contention that the Narendra Modi dispensation is pro-worker?
A. The Government’s anti-labourer policies and measures are becoming clearer to all.
Q. Do you observe any difference between the labour policies pursued by the B.J.P. and the predecessor U.P.A. regimes?
A. The policies are basically same – anti-worker and pro-corporate. The present dispensation, with brute majority in the Lok Sabha, is pursuing the stratagem more aggressively.
Q. What is your take on the Government’s decision to hike minimum wage for unskilled non-agricultural workers in central public sector units from Rs. 246 to Rs. 350 per day and formation of a committee to look into extending benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Act to the unorganised sectors, including volunteers ofanganwadi and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme besides accredited social health activists?
A. This has no practical and material basis.
Q. What are the principal issues confronting the working class?
A. Protection of hard-earned rights proposed to be taken away and regularisation of contractual workers constituting 80 % of the workforce.
Q. Shed light on some labour-related amendments?
A. By amending the Industrial Disputes Act, the regime proposes to satisfy the corporate demand vis-à-vis hire and fire sans interference. As much as 90 % of workers can now be terminated without intervention. Similarly, the proposed alteration of the Factories Act will deprive labourers of plants employing less than 40 workers from rights including the one regarding hours of work. Modification of the Apprentice Act shall allow employers to engage workers as apprentices for years together not only on extremely low pay but also sans consequential benefits on earnings, which are termed as apprenticeship stipend.
Q. What do you propose as the next course of action?
A. AIUTUC proferred to Central Trade Union organisations to constitute workers’ struggle committees at all levels to properly popularise the demands and go for struggle at every rung culminating in continuous strike throughout the country.