Trade unions up in arms

Tribune News Service, Jalandhar, September 18

National president of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and former MP G Sanjeeva Reddy today announced that various trade unions would hold another nation-wide strike on November 23 in line with a similar protest held earlier on September 2. He said that over one crore workers across the country would go on strike that day.

Reddy said the protest would be aimed at opposing the Foreign Direct Investment and privatisation of various important government departments, including railways, defence and banking.

“At present six lakh posts against 13 lakh sanctioned posts have been lying vacant in the railways and the department is not filling up these as it intends to commericalise all railway stations,” he said.

He said the union was against the decision of the government to make pro-management amendments in the Labour Act by disallowing the labour class to hold any strike without taking the complaint to Tribunal, which generally takes four to five years to dispose off a case. “It is being proposed to add a clause that workers going on strike could be sentenced to a five year imprisonment and Rs 5 lakh fine,” Reddy said. The INTUC president said they were also demanding enhancing the minimum wages to Rs 15,000 a month. He said the labour law violation was common even in Punjab as there were lot many departments where employees were being taken on contract and their wages were far lower than regular staff doing the same job as in the Punjab Roadways. He also pointed out of about 40 per cent vacant posts of labour inspectors and commissioners in the department itself. He said that even the policy to allow labour staff to inspect a factory only upon a formal complaint getting lodged was anti-labour.