New Delhi: The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the RSS, has opposed the slew of changes in the labour laws announced earlier this week by the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments.
The BMS said these changes to the labour laws are violation of the international labour law conventions and it will create a situation where there is no rule of law.
“It will be a bigger pandemic than coronavirus. The BMS will hold an emergency meeting and protest against these moves,” BMS president Saji Narayanan told ThePrint.
“This isn’t the time to make labour reforms. We can’t allow jungle raj and put labourers in the hands of corporates. States are creating such a situation that there is no rule of law,” he added.
Narayanan said Madhya Pradesh has withdrawn most of the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act.
Following amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act, new establishments will get exemption from many provisions in the next 1,000 days, including keeping labourers in service according to their convenience. The amendments will stop intervention by the labour department.
“India needs bureaucratic reforms, not labour reforms. If they are thinking these will attract investments from China, they are in an illusion. These changes will make labourers more vulnerable to job losses when the entire industry is laying off employees,” Narayanan added.
Also read: UP-MP labour reform: Wooing investors post-lockdown or taking advantage of Covid crisis?
‘Not the time to dilute laws’
On Thursday, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in MP allowed industries to increase workers’ shifts from eight to 12 hours and a 1,000-day labour law holiday for new investors.
Factory licence will now be required to be renewed only once in 10 years instead of annual renewal. Also, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) will be able to hire labourers according to their requirement to increase productivity.
The Yogi Adityanath government in UP, meanwhile, Wednesday approved an ordinance exempting all establishments, factories, and businesses from the purview of most labour laws for three years.
“Huge migration of labourers is going on in every state due to their ill-treatment by employers. They have not been paid their salaries and not provided any security. Workers are crying for help, they are walking 2,000 km by foot in absence of social security,” said the BMS president.
“This is the time to reinforce safety provisions, not to dilute laws. We have demanded from the Union labour minister (Santosh Gangwar) not to rush with the labour reforms without making safeguards as this will open Pandora’s box,” he added.
Narayanan said Delhi is also contemplating making changes in labour laws. “Other states will follow this model of issuing ordinance. This will not be in the interests of the workers,” he added.
BJP had suggested Modi govt labour reforms
Last month, ThePrint reported that the BJP gave some suggestions to the Modi government for reviving the economy post-Covid-19, and some of them were on the impending labour and land reforms.
“If major manufacturing units leave China, many experts feel India is unlikely to gain in this scenario because the cost of doing business in India is very high compared to other South-East Asian countries. We have to carry out major land and labour reforms to make our products competitive in price and quality,” a BJP leader, who was part of the consultation process, had earlier told ThePrint.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Agarwal said: “We had suggested amendments to labour and land laws to make manufacturing viable in India. There is time to launch a new manufacturing policy, but before that government has to make these changes (in labour laws).”
But Narayanan disagreed with the BJP and said India couldn’t be a manufacturing hub overnight.
“It is the duty of the government to protect its workers. India can’t be China and should not become another China where no one knows about workers rights and protection,” he said.
BMS general secretary Vrijesh Upadhyay told ThePrint that in a day or two they would call an emergency meeting of central leaders to chalk out their protest plan against the amendments to labour laws.
“(These amendments) It will not create more jobs, but will lead to harassment of workers and unemployment,” he added.
Also read: Labour law reforms must for industrial growth. UP, MP have done it, now others must follow