The eleven central trade unions had decided to hold a National Convention of workers on May,26, 2015 to decide on future course of action on its 10 point charter of demands. Of course these demands are nothing new, but being pursued from the UPA government egime. Now, the situation has further aggravated with aggressive attempts of the Narendra Modi government to change the existing labour laws to suit the interests of the employers while the central trade unions are demanding strict enforcement of the labour laws.

Of late the government is busy for amendments of Indian Trade Union Act, 1926 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to benefit the corporates and deny the workers their legitimate trade union rights. It was in this background that the BJP government invited the central trade unions for a negotiation on 16th May, 2015. The government side was represented by a ministerial team comprising the Power Minister, Piyush Goyal, Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatraya and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. But the talk failed to reach agreement on any of the ten demands as the ministerial team was not even able to open the government’s mind as it was not formally designated. The talk was further complicated by the Centre’s move to restrict trade unionism, lower wage standard and make it easier for companies to lay off workers.

The President of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)  Baidya Nath Rai has said after the discussion that ” It is an irony that on the day the government will be celebrating, all workers of the country will be reminding it that nothing has been done  in the last one year.” Mr. Rai added that by asking certain ministers to negotiate with the unions without formally designating a team, the Modi government was being dismissive of them. One of the key demands in the charter of demand is proper implementation of labour laws. Now, they have gone a step in the opposite direction and are dismantling existing laws.”