Editorial
No permanent job means nothing but enslavement of the workers.
Whether we are going back to the period of slave- master system..? Yes, it is hard to believe; but that is the reality. The government of India notification replacing permanent job with term based employment and extending the Fixed Term Employment to all establishments is nothing short of enslaving the workers and throwing them to the mercy of employers. No discussion was held with the trade unions in the country who are the important stake holders and Parliament also was not taken into confidence before issuing the draconian notification. This unilateral and high handed action of the central government led by NarendraModi reflects its anti-worker and anti-poor stand. Of course, the government is committed to pursue the neo-liberal policies more vigorously to appease the corporates and the attack on the workers and the poor people.
The government started the attack on the workers with the amendments of labour laws taking away the hard won rights of the workers. Indian Trade Union Act, 1926, Industrial Employment Central Rules,1946, Industrial Disputes Act,1947, Factories Act, Child Labour Act etc were compelled to be enacted through so many sacrificing struggles of the working class. . Certain state governments like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were first to resort to amendments of labour laws and shamelessly the central government is following these states to deny the workers some of the important rights as also diluting their fundamental rights.
Modi government came to power by giving the people so many promises. One of the important promises made was generation of 2 crore jobs every year. But nothing worthwhile has been done in this regard. According to Labour Bureau report, 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and 4.1 lakh in 2016-17. Mass scale job losses due to the demonetization is not taken into consideration by the LabourBureau . Ever since implementation of LPG ( Liberaisation, Privatisation and Glabalisation) started in India in 1991, the number of casual and contract workers increased steadily and has , of late, out numbered the regular workers in most of the establishments. Meanwhile, the central government is not keen to fill up the vacant posts in various government departments. In a reply to a question, it was revealed in the Parliament on February, 2017 that 4,12,752 posts are lying vacant as on 31-03-2016.
It is a surprising coincidence that the attack on pension also was during the earlier BJP government. Statutory pension with defined benefit was replaced with the contributory pension during the A.B.Vajpayeeled BJP government with effect from 01-01-2004. Later the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh got it legalized by enacting the PFRDA in the Parliament with the active support of BJP.
These onslaughts on workers and pensioners are to be fought unitedly and defeated. We have heard earlier about the “Hire and Fire” and it is now legalized by the Modi government with the notification making significant amendments to the Industrial Employees Central Rules,1946. It will definitely create a chaotic situation in the labour sector. The central trade unions have condemned it and resolved to fight against the draconian move and in Kerala, the entire trade unions barring BMS has rightly decided for a one day strike on April 2, 2018.