The Life of Labour: Farmers Court Mass Arrest Protesting Modi Government Policies

Farmers across India court arrest protesting government policies

Farmers from over 400 districts across India participated in various forms of protest against the policies of the central and state governments that are causing agrarian distress. This comes in the context of a recent hike in minimum support price which the central government claimed to historically unprecedented. Yet the farmers have been upset that it fell far short of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee recommendation that had used the total cost of production including the implied rent to arrive at the MSP. There were also other demands including loan waivers, land acquisition issues and social security for farmers. The protests were organised and spearheaded by the CPIM backed All India Kisan Sabha.

Illustration by Aliza Bakht

In Ludhiana, Punjab, farm workers joined the non-farm workers demanding a rollback of the wage code bill and seeking an end to contractualisation.

In Karnal, Haryana, sugar cane farmers who have already been on a 17-day dharna at the cooperative mill office demanding payment of dues courted arrest. They have been on a long drawn struggle against non-payment of dues by the sugar mills. They have also been opposing plans to set up yet another mill in the area. The farmers, who are being organised under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union, were miffed that no MLA had met them even after 17 days of protest.

The protests planned in Tamil Nadu were postponed after the demise of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

Tanker, fishing vessel collision kills 13

In a tragic accident on the high seas, an oil tanker rammed into a fishing vessel about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Kochin in the pre-dawn hours of August 7. The collision ripped the small fishing vessel leaving at least 3 dead and 9 crew missing. Two sailors were rescued. The search and rescue operations continue, hampered by the rough weather that has been causing mayhem in Kerala.

Four ships that are suspected to have caused the accident have been ordered to lay anchor at various ports. This includes the oil tanker MV Desh Shakthi which is owned and operated by the Shipping Corporation of India.

Fishing organisations, including the National Fishworkers Forum, have condemned the negligence of ship operators and marine regulators for having let such a mishap happen and have demanded solatium for the families of the deceased fishermen.

A major explosion in BPCL refinery leaves 45 workers injured, 2 critical

A major explosion at the BPCL oil refinery in Chembur near Mumbai left 45 workers, including 16 contract workers, injured. 5 workers had to be admitted to the critical care units, the condition of two workers remained critical as of Friday.

The accident was a result of a gas leak which could not be contained quickly. Such explosive reactions are possible in refineries and it needs careful safety checks to stop combustible gases from mixing with chemicals.

Workers blame the company for a lax attitude towards safety, with some alleging that a fire had broken out in the same unit two months ago though it was doused before it could become catastrophic. Such incidents only highlight the callous attitude toward workers’ lives in India.

A critical review of the Padmanabhan committee recommendations on transport workers’ wages

A successful strike by Tamil Nadu transport workers in early January led to the intervention of the High Court of Madras, which set up an arbitration committee under Justice (retd.) Padmanabhan as a way to end the strike. The workers and their representative organisations were in for a rude shock when the committee vetoed their demands in total, agreeing entirely with the transport corporation and state government to a lower wage settlement. In that process, the committee has also validated arguments that negate fundamental principles upon which the workers’ demands were predicated, such as parity with government employees. While the unions have not challenged the recommendations as yet, they have raised their criticisms of the recommendations. Thozhilalar Koodam presents a critical appraisal of the recommendations.

Mapping unpaid work

The debate around valuing unpaid household work has been raging for many decades. Given that in a predominantly patriarchal society it’s the women who take the added burden of household labour, the issue also has a clear gender dimension. Taking the debate further, the Indian government has directed the NSSO to conduct a time use survey to capture the extent of unpaid work carried out by women in particular. The survey, to be conducted over the next year, would cover over 1.5 lakh households across India and the results will be available by early 2020. This would be a significant development for both policymakers as well as researchers to understand the nature of unpaid work and evolve strategies and policy to enhance female work participation as well as the quality of life.

A parliamentary panel recommends mechanisms to protect overseas Indian workers

Taking cognisance of the thousands of reported cases of exploitation and abuse of Indian workers overseas, the parliamentary standing committee on labour has urged the ministry of external affairs, labour ministry as well as state governments to evolve mechanisms to protect Indians from abuse and exploitation. Highlighting the role played by agents and touts in luring Indians into a labour trap, the committee has chided the government for not being proactive in defending workers’ rights. Some of the major complaints of overseas workers are non-payment of salaries, denial of legitimate labour rights, longer working hours, non-provision of medical and insurance facilities and confinement or abandoning of maids. The committee recommended increasing criminal penalties on touts, a grievance redressal mechanism that is well publicised and appointing nodal officers at the state level to deal with the issues of overseas Indian workers.

Update and other news

Sex workers protest the anti-trafficking bill

The recently enacted anti-trafficking bill that aims to protect victims of human trafficking has come for criticism and protest from sex workers. They maintain that the act does not distinguish between consensual sex work and trafficked victims. This will lead to harassment of consenting sex workers, exposing them to further exploitation by bureaucrats and the police. They are planning further protests to amend the bill such that a clear distinction is made between the two. While the union minister for women and child welfare had assured the parliament that the act will not be used against consenting sex workers but the sex workers are not willing to take the bait as there is nothing specific in the act that prevents such abuse. Many workers, quoted by news reports, cite the higher incomes in the profession and the lack of economically viable opportunities as the reason for their choice. They claim that their families depend on this income and would be ruined if they are forced into rehabilitation clinics and alternative jobs that do not pay as well. Youth Ki Awaaz has a detailed discussion on these issues.

Bengal tea workers struggle for wage hike

Rejecting the West Bengal government’s wage fixation of Rs. 172 a day, lakhs of tea workers have gone on strike since August 7. They have been battling for a reasonable minimum wage for decades. In the recent years, the struggle had become strong enough to force the plantation owners and the government to agree to set up a committee to look into the wage fixation. Yet, the workers have been disappointed at the results of the long process. In a detailed article, Ground Xero discusses the many tricks, twists, turns and betrayals that have eventually forced the workers to go on this massive strike.

Tussle over minimum wage in Delhi, this time it's the court vs government

In December 2017, the Delhi government had raised the minimum wage by over Rs 3,000 across skill levels. While the workers greatly appreciated the wage increase, it was challenged by employers who made the clichéd claim that it was unsustainable.

Unfortunately for the workers, the Delhi High Court has annulled the notification, reverting the minimum wages. While the court has said that the employers should not reclaim the wages already paid, the loss of over Rs, 3,000 a month could mean significant financial woes for the workers. While it is usually the lieutenant governor who throws a spanner in the work of the AAP government, this time it was the high court.

The AAP government has called the decision regrettable and has said it will challenge the order in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, after discussion with trade union representatives, it has initiated the process to revise the minimum wages. It plans to adopt the central government notification that came in January 2018 which Delhi minister for labour claims provides slightly higher wage rates. This would take at least another two months if it’s not subjected to further legal hurdles. During this time, the workers will receive lower wages.

All India protest against Motor Vehicles Act gets a mixed response

The protests against the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which would lead to a greater market access for large corporate entities in the automobile service, spare parts and registration process, evoked mixed response across India. The strike had been planned for August 7, in the backdrop of the bill awaiting passage in the Rajya Sabha. The call for a nationwide strike had been issued by the All India Road Transport Workers organisations.

Hindustan Times reported that the strike was successful in Haryana as over 4,000 state transport buses stopped plying. Reports from Karnataka indicated that with a lack of support from two major local transport unions, the strike was a failure. Most taxis, cabs and buses were plying on August 7.

In Tamil Nadu, where the transport workers have been on a running feud with the state government, it was expected that the strike would evoke a favourable response from the workers. But the strike was called off in the eleventh hour due to the deteriorating health of M. Karunanidhi. Thousands of party workers were travelling to Chennai to pay their respect and the unions decided not to cause hindrance to this show of sympathy and support. The strike was converted to protest demonstrations in Chennai.

Karnataka: ESIC contract workers go on strike demanding pending wages

Nearly 200 workers including staff nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, medical record maintainers, nursing orderlies and others employed at the ESIC Medical College and Hospital in Kalaburagi refused to work on Wednesday in protest against the non-payment of wages and violations of labour laws. They staged a demonstration outside the hospital building raising slogans against the ‘anti-labour’ attitude of the authorities and Shree Udyog Enterprises, the manpower agency through which they are employed. The agitating workers also alleged that the dean had made an attempt to break the unity of the workers with threats of calling the police and service termination if they were to refuse to call off the strike.

However, acknowledging the genuine issues of the workers, the hospital authorities said that they were working hard to address the problems. They held Shree Udyog Enterprises, the contractor who supplied manpower to the institution, responsible for the problem.

International news

Prisoners plan to shut down a barbaric system

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a group of incarcerated prisoner-rights advocates, are calling for a nationwide strike by prisoners across the US. This call is in “response to the riot at Lee Correctional Facility in South Carolina last April, during which seven men were killed and 22 injured in the deadliest incident of prison violence in the last quarter century.” Despite the prison authorities trying to spin the violence as “gang-related”, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak “argues that incidents of prison violence are connected to the increasingly barbaric conditions in prisons and the hopelessness and desperation those conditions breed”.

Ryanair strike hits 55,000 customers across Europe

Reuters reports that the low-cost airline Ryanair, which recognised unions for the first time in its 30-year history last year after large-scale strikes, is facing the wrath of its employees again after delaying the signing of collective bargaining agreements. The airline “faced its worst one-day strike on Friday after a walk-out by pilots in five European countries disrupted the plans of an estimated 55,000 travellers with the budget airline at the height of the summer holiday season.”

For 12 years, this Japanese university has had one mission - fewer women doctors

A university in Japan, Tokyo Medical University, admitted recently that they’ve been rigging their entrance test results by deducting marks from female candidates and increasing marks for male candidates for more than a decade. Jake Adelstein of The Times reports, “The university’s top management institutionalised sex discrimination because they believed that female doctors were more likely to leave the profession after getting married or having children, reducing the number of the university’s graduates in the medical field, and thereby reducing the institution’s influence.”

Weekend reading

'No madam can scare me,' maid turned comedian mocks India's elite

The Guardian writes about Deepika Mhatre, a domestic worker and stand-up comedian in Delhi whose comedy set list is full of humour around class, “madams” and her life. Read more here.

“We Rise Together, Homie”

Here’s a Jacobin interview with Antoine Dangerfield, “whose video of an Indianapolis wildcat strike went viral this week — and led to his firing. He doesn't regret it, though.”

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