Ten trade unions in the country have decided to lodge a joint complaint with the International Labour Organisation (IO) over the new labour laws introduced in Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states in the country, which are going against the interests of the working class.
The unions will go to the ILO on the grounds that the laws are to bring about a change without consultations and discussions with the working class, which is violation of the ILO Convention of Tripartite discussions involving works or their unions, the employers and the government.
The Uttar Pradesh government, taking the excuse of the poor economic situation in the country, has brought in a law which frees employers from the condition to have contract labour for a minimum of three years.
The Unions have stated that six state governments in the country have increased the working hours of workers from the statutory eight hours to 12 hours, apart from making it easy for the employers to follow the ‘hire and fire policy’.
The ten unions, which have come together to approach ILO on these issues are Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) – the trade union affiliated to the Indian National Congress – All India Trade Union Congress; Hind Mazdoor Sabha; Centre for Indian Trade Unions, the trade union wing Communist Party of India, All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre(TUCC); Self Employed Women’s Association, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), an organisation affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) – the labour wing of the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham – and United Trade Union Congress.
The unions have described the new laboour laws as “anti-worker and anti-people autocratic measures”.
The unions noted, “As the mass of the working people have been subjected to inhuman sufferings owing to loss of jobs, loss of wages, eviction from residences etc reducing them to hungry non-entities in the process of 45 days lockdown, the government of the day at the Centre has pounced upon those working people only with fangs and claws to reduce them to the stature of virtual slaves”.