Government fails to break deadlock with trade unions, nationwide strike on Sept 2 imminent

NEW DELHI: The government has failed to break the deadlock with trade unions over their 12-point charter of demands, key being the Modi administration’s approach towards labour law amendments which unions feel are anti-labour.

This is despite the intervention of five key ministers, including Arun Jaitley who met the trade unions for the second time on Wednesday.

While talks will resume on Thursday, in the second meeting of the inter-ministerial committee with trade unions in 24 hours, central trade unions said they would stick to their demands and would not call off their planned nationwide strike on September 2 as there had been no concrete assurance from the government so far.

The inter-ministerial committee is chaired by Finance Minister Jaitley and comprises Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Jitender Singh, who is a minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Talks with trade unions reconvene tomorrow and we are hopeful that a consensus will be reached … This government is doing whatever possible in the interest of the workers with particular focus on price rise, social security and employment generation,” Dattatreya said after a two-and-half-hour meeting with 12 central trade unions. However, unions have unanimously rejected the minister’s statement that all the labour law amendments proposed by the government were in the interest of the workers.

“Government says whatever changes they have proposed are not anti-labour. This is the biggest joke ever by the labour ministry, who is trying to dilute the crux of some of the labour laws including the Contract Labour Act,” Tapan Sen of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions said.

According to DL Sachdeva of the All India Trade Union Congress, there was no concrete assurance from the government on any of the demand.

Even Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of the RSS, is not blinking and said the union would continue to protest on the streets until there was a written assurance from the government on each of the 12-point charter of demands.