The Life of Labour: RSS-Affiliated Union Slams NITI Aayog; Job Cuts on the Horizon
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Slowdown in various sectors to cost lakhs of jobs
As reported earlier in this column, the auto sector is facing its worst crisis in two decades costing lakhs of jobs and set to affect many more. Another labour-intensive sector, textile, is staring at a slowdown that could cost and has requested to the government to intervene to avoid job losses and prevent NPAs in the spinning sector. The Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) has placed full-page advertisements in newspapers to urge the government to act on their demands.
An estimated 40,000 people employed by the diamond cutting and polishing units in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have lost their jobs in the past few months, The Tribune reported.
Parle Products, country’s largest biscuit maker has warned that it may have to let go of 8,000 to 10,000 employees owing to slowdown in consumption. Another biscuit giant, Britannia, has voiced similar concerns saying consumers are thinking twice before buying even Rs 5 products. Britannia managing director Varun Berry says this indicates “a serious issue in the economy”.
Strike at 41 ordnance factories halts defence production
After the government announced its decision to corporatise ordnance factories, around 80,000-1 lakh employees across 41 factories started a month-long strike on Tuesday. Ordnance factories supply arms, ammunitions and other equipment exclusively to Indian armed forces. The decision to corporatise was taken after “the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), the government’s auditor, and the armed forces, repeatedly raised issue of quality and delays in delivery of equipment by the ordnance factories,” Hindustan Times reported.
However, employee unions in the factories have vehemently opposed this move. All trade unions, including the RSS’s Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, have offered support and solidarity to the striking employees. Unions have claimed that the strike was total on the first day and there was no production. Employees call this move arbitrary saying, “ordnance factories, being war-reserve and solely dependent on the armed forces, cannot function as a commercially viable PSU”.
The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), which oversees the factories, is perhaps the oldest government-run entity in India, predating even the Railways.
Also read: The Life of Labour: MTNL Workers Unpaid for 2 Months, 2 Lakh Auto Sector Jobs Cut
RSS-affiliated trade union criticises 'wrong' labour policies, slams NITI Aayog
At its 144th national committee meeting in Delhi last weekend, RSS-affiliated BMS criticised the government’s “wrong” economic and labour policies. While accepting that the government was trying “its level best” to boost economy, employment and skill development, the BMS said all these efforts were negated by “wrong direction” of policy making bodies. “Their main role ends up in converting India’s economy into a capitalist economy and all other developmental activities become ancillary,” their statement said.
They called for an India-centric development plan “rather than that dictated by western rating agencies and institutions like WTO, WB and IMF”. They asked for restructuring of the NITI Aayog so as to “remove its apathy” towards social organisations and trade unions. Hitting out at the policy think tank of the government, it added that “Harvard university experts who have no knowledge about Indian realities are the last word for them”.
While the BMS earlier welcomed the Wage Code Bill, the statement says that the “so called labour law reforms” have contributed in damaging our economy. “The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) welcomes this codification and simplification of labour laws. But we opposed many of the anti-worker provisions in the labour codes,” it said, adding that six units in a family should be considered while deciding minimum wages. This, they say, is to be in sync with social realities of today that includes ageing parents.
They also flagged the crisis in the auto sector and said disinvestment from public sector has caused “panic” in the minds of the employees. The statement added that rise in contractualisation was a sign of “falling and distressed” private sector, adding that privatisation can’t be a remedy for the economy.
Threefold rise in number of manual scavengers despite ban
An RTI filed by The Wire has revealed that the number of manual scavengers in India has gone up from 14,505 in 2013 to 41,420 in 2018. This after a 2013 law had banned the practice of manual scavenging altogether.
The National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), which works under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, had conducted a survey in 170 districts of 18 states. In those districts, a total of 86,528 people described their work as “manual cleaning of waste". Oddly, the government identified only about half of them (41,420) as manual scavengers even when all had registered their occupation as the same.
Bihar, Haryana, Telangana and J&K have claimed they have no manual scavengers employed in their states.
Read the full article by Dheeraj Mishra here for detailed state and district wise data.
Photo: PTI
International News
Workers seize the shipyard that built the Titanic, plan to make renewable energy there
“Late last month, 130 ship builders, steel workers, welders, and riveters seized control of the storied Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic in 1909,” Vice reported on August 14. The workers are demanding that the docks be nationalised and be used to produce renewable energy. The docks were being shut down as the Norwegian parent company failed to find a buyer but the workers have refused to leave the site.
“There’s massive potential in wind turbines and tidal energy. They’re saying they could create thousands of jobs, and that we need a just transition to renewable energy,” a spokesperson for Unite, which represents the workers, told Vice.
This is an unconventional and welcome change for climate activists as workers show eagerness to transition to renewable energy.
Also read: Trade Unions Protest Against Changes in Labour Laws, Allege Pro-Employer Bias
Amazon uses a Twitter army of employees to fight criticism of warehouses
Amazon employees, known as ‘FC Ambassadors’ have become the butt of jokes on Twitter after it was revealed how the company was using employees to country any criticism of the company on social media.
The New York Times reported how one ambassador, going by the name Hannah, responded to a thread that described poor treatment of Amazon workers – “I suffer from depression too, and at one point I wanted to quit Amazon,” she wrote. “But I realised it was my fault for the problems I was dealing with, and not Amazon’s. I’m allowed to talk to people, but sometimes I don’t want to. Now I have some great coworkers to pass the nights with.”
Extra reading
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Why do so many construction workers kill themselves?
Report: Levi’s, Wrangler, Lee seamstresses harassed, abused
Amendments to labour laws under the Modi government: No love for labour
This article went live on August twenty-first, two thousand nineteen, at thirty minutes past eight in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
