Trade unions slam government's proposed industrial relation draft bill

NEW DELHI: Trade unions, including the RSS-backed Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), have said the government’s proposed industrial relation draft bill cannot be supported as it will make it easy for companies to hire and fire workers.

This could be a big blow to the labour ministry which has been working on the code for six months and is trying to finalise the draft bill to take it up in the winter ses- sion of the Parliament after consultations with stakeholders.

"The government has failed to incorporate the areas of consensus arrived at in the last meeting on this bill. Hence, there is no point of discussing further,” Pawan Kumar, zonal secretary of BMS said after the third tripartite consultative meeting with the government on Tuesday.

According to Kumar, the majority of proposals mooted under the code on industrial relations are not in the interest of workers. “BMS will not permit the government to strangulate workers in the name of ‘ease of doing business’,” Kumar said, adding that trade unions instead demand ‘ease of life’ for workers.

The labour ministry is working to rationalise the provisions of the 44 labour laws into four labour codes that include codes on wages, industrial relations, social security and welfare and safety, and working conditions for workers, and hopes to bring in a labour code on wages as well as industrial relations in the upcoming session of parliament.

The key provisions of the draft code on industrial relation include allowing companies employing up to 300 workers to lay off staff without government permission, as against 100 workers now, a move that unions say will throw 85 per cent of the companies out of its ambit and thus enable employers to hire and fire employees.

Besides, it has proposed to make it tough to form unions and re- strict outsiders to become unions' office bearers, thus keeping unions indirectly out of the conciliation board as well.

All-India Trade Union Congress secretary DL Sachdev said the minister has made it clear that they are determined to go ahead with the proposed reforms.