LABOUR LAWS (EXEMPTIONS FROM FURNISHING RETURNS AND MAINTAINING REGISTERS FOR CERTAIN ESTABLISHMENTS) AMENDMENT BILL 2011

UPA GOVERNMENT OUT TO PERPETRATE CRIMES UPON PEOPLE - Tapan Sen

THE Congress-led government of the day is on a spree to commit one crime after another on the nation and the people. If the UPA-1 regime could not fulfil its wish-list of anti-people measures as it was dependent on the Left to remain in power, the Congress now has allies like the Trinamul Congress and DMK and an “opposition” like the BJP who support the government in most of its criminal acts.

These crimes are a legion --- from arrogant patronisation to allowing the speculators and hoarders in the food market to jack the prices up and earn windfall profit. It did everything to enable the corporate houses to loot the public exchequer, e.g. in telecom spectrum sale or in procurement of contracts for the Commonwealth Games.

On March 23, the government introduced in Rajya Sabha a bill titled Labour Laws (Exemptions from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers for Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill 2011, which aims at virtually liberating the employers of establishments employing up to 40 persons from the obligations of almost all basic labour laws governing minimum wages, payment of wages, working hours, contract work, payment of bonus and what not. Already, all these labour laws are being observed more in their violation in most of the workplaces, particularly in the private sector, but the new bill aims to legalise such crimes and give then the statutory seal of approval by the central government.

If the establishments employing up to 40 persons are freed from all obligations under the existing labour laws, what would be its implication? This would throw at least 78 per cent of the workforce in the manufacturing sector alone out of the purview of labour laws and put then completely at the mercy of the employers. Moreover, this figure is based on the employment pattern revealed by the factories who have been submitting regular returns to the government. Further, as per the government’s own estimates, hardly 30 per cent of the factories are actually submitting regular returns. Thus the actual percentage of protectionless workers must be much more than estimated.

Now, if we consider the service establishments of various kinds mushrooming in the economy through the process of rampant outsourcing, the number of workers to get thrown out of any kind of legal protection would be much higher. Add to it the normal practice of most of the private sector employers or most of the contractors of public sector companies not to record the names of all the workers in their employment registers, and you will find that in actuality more than 90 per cent of the workforce in the organised sector alone will be at the mercy of total lawlessness and anarchy of the employers class.

We can recall that when the same bill was introduced during the UPA-1 regime, the Left parties and the protest agitations by the working class did not allow the government to push it through. But after getting free from their dependence on Left support, the Congress and their allies are now demonstrating unalloyed loyalty and commitment to their corporate masters, officialising the latter’s right to loot the workers and deprive them of their basic rights.

POINT TO PONDER

The point to seriously ponder is that homework for all these three disastrous bills started during the BJP-led NDA regime and that the UPA-1 regime made frequent efforts to push them through, though in vain. Also, both the alliances, NDA and UPA, hah had certain common partners in these exercises of criminality. Two such common partners have been the Trinamul Congress and DMK who aided in these disastrous anti-worker and anti-people exercises. None of them can wash its hands off.

Moreover, the main opposition party, the BJP, has also joined hands in perpetrating these crimes on people and the nation.

In fact, it is the Left parties and the working people’s movement, whose aspirations coincide with the Left’s vision on national interest and people’s right, who have been putting up a real opposition to such neo-liberal crimes.

The perpetrators of these crimes, their allies and their hangers-on stand identified today, but their game is not yet over. Though these bills have been introduced, they have not been passed. The situation demands more mobilisation and more militant resistance outside --- in the workplaces, on the streets. Only the Left can lead this struggle and help people recognise their real enemies.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/