Conspiracy
to Impose
Slavery on Working Class;
‘Hire
and Fire’ without Changing Laws
Tapan Sen
November 2018
The BJP government at the Centre, right from the day
it assumed office, has been working overtime to empower the employers’ class
with the unbridled right to “hire and
fire” workers at their will through various routes. Its sole motive is to
impose the conditions of slavery on the working people of the country who
actually produce the GDP, generate resources for the national exchequer and
also generate profit for the employers.
“Ease
of doing business” is the central focus of the Modi government. In the
process, weakening and finally eliminating trade unions at workplaces is the
main objective. Continuing loot on the workers and their rights is its modus
operandi.
Attempts of Hire & Fire & Resistance
Had there been no workers, there would have been no
production of goods and services and, therefore, no profit. But, under capitalist regime, these workers
are being squeezed and exploited most. As the crisis of the capitalist system
deepens and aggravates, such exploitation becomes more atrocious, more heinous
and more blood-sucking.
The attempts to introduce the system of “hire and fire” have been going on since
the onset of the neoliberal policies. Successive governments at the Centre and
in many states made hell-bent efforts to change the labour laws. The proposal
to change the Industrial Disputes Act to allow employers in all establishments,
employing up to 300 workers, to retrench workers or declare closure without government’s
prior permission had been initiated in the mid nineties itself. These comprise
more than 70% of the industrial establishments in the country employing more
than 78% of the industrial workforce. But that could not be achieved by the government
owing to consistent united resistance by the trade union movement of the
country. In fact, latest proposal of the Modi government on Code on Industrial
Relations Bill also pressed for the same proposals on “hire and fire” i.e. complete freedom to employers’ class to
retrench workers at their will, which even the Modi sponsored trade union
centre could not endorse publicly.
The united movement of the working class in the
country which is getting consistently and continuously widened in the process
of countrywide struggles could successfully stall such retrograde move changing
the labour laws for introducing “hire and
fire” till now.
Contractorisation and Casualisation Route
In this background, the governments, led by BJP, have
resorted to most dubious means of circumstantially empowering the employers’
class to retrench workers at their will even without changing legal framework
through innovative as well as satanic administrative measures. The ground for
such aggressive onslaught of “hire and
fire” has been set through widespread contractorisation and casualisation
of labour which got additional momentum since the inception of neoliberal
policy regime in early 1990s itself. It is not that prior to 1990s contract
system was not there. But such contract work had been prevalent mainly in
peripheral and supportive jobs in most of the establishments and not that much
in core operational jobs. And even in those peripheral jobs, particularly those
of permanent and perennial nature, deployment of contract workers was
continuing illegally in violation of the Contract Labour (Regulation &
Abolition) Act 1970, with the direct indulgence of the concerned governments. Even
in that situation, wherever the contract workers could be organised in trade
unions and struggles could be conducted, they could be regularised in many
industries till mid 1980s.
But since 1991 onward, such unlawful deployment of
contract workers even in core operational jobs of the establishment
proliferated in a big way through active indulgence of the government
machineries reaching almost an explosive proportion of the total workforce by
now. Even the Supreme Court Judgment put hurdles on regularisation of contract
workers deployed in permanent and perennial nature of jobs as per the law of
the land. As per official estimates
(Employment -Unemployment Survey conducted by Labour Bureau under the Labour
Ministry-2015-16) 46.6% of the workforce were found to be self employed, as per
Usual Principal Status Approach followed by 32.8% as casual labour. Only 20.7%
are wage/salaried workers including contract workers. As per the same survey
report, 64.9% of the wage/salaried workers and 67.8% of the contract workers
and 95.3% of the casual workers do not have any written job contracts (and/or
appointment letters).This itself reveals the extremely temporary character of
employment of majority of the wage/salaried workers in the country. The same
report also revealed that 67.5% of the self-employed (46.6% of the total
workforce) have an average monthly income up to Rs 7500, 57.2% of wage/salaried
workers have a monthly income up to Rs.10,000 and 38.5% of the contract workers
and 59.3% of the casual workers have a monthly income of up to Rs 5000. The
entire findings of the Survey Report clearly reveal that overwhelming majority
of the country’s workforce in industries and services are on contract, only a
small proportion are on regular permanent employment. Even among the majority
of self-employed, contract system is in operation in hidden form.
Annual Survey of Industries and also the reports
published by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy brought forth industry
specific details of contract work. According to these reports, petroleum sector
accounts for 56.21% contract workers out of its total workforce, basic metal (steel,
aluminium etc) 46.5%, automobile including trucks and trailers 45.95%, tobacco
products 72.83%, pharmaceuticals and chemicals 47.19%, non-metallic minerals
60.37% etc. Of these the public sector itself accounts for around 50% contract
workers out of the total workforce and the private sector entities are
employing around 70% of its total workforce as contract workers of different
hues.
The alarming extent to which workers are being
severely exploited through contract system is thus clear. In public sector
industries, contract workers are generally being paid less than one tenth of
the wage of the regular workers despite doing the same and similar work, not to
speak of other benefits. In private
sector, contract workers’ wage is well below 50% of the wages being paid to
regular workers. Majority of the contract workers are deprived of any social
security benefits despite being legally entitled for the same. But the very
temporary nature of service as contract workers, keeping them under constant
threat of retrenchment, does not allow the contract workers to demand such
benefits to which they are legally entitled.
Not only that. The clear stipulation of the section 25
of the Rules framed under Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act 1970
providing for payment of same wages as regular workers to the contract workers for
doing the same and similar jobs is not being implemented by the concerned governments
subjecting the contract workers to severe exploitation.
New Routes for “Ease of Doing Business”
It is in this background of extreme vulnerability of
employment relations of majority of country’s workforce even in the organised
sector itself, that the present BJP government has been introducing measures one
after another to virtually empower the employers’ class with the complete right
to “hire and fire” at will. This is
being done in their anxiety to ensure so called “ease of doing business”.
First, Outsourcing
The first is to allow employers to deploy of contract
workers in regular jobs through different nomenclatures viz., outsourcing, job
contracts, commercial contracts etc. It is argued that no contractor has been
engaged for doing the jobs but the entire work has been outsourced to another
agency for a price; so the principal employer has no responsibility over the
workers working in the outsourced agencies, although they are actually working
for the principal employer. Thus these workers are sought to be thrown out of
the purview of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act 1970 and
principal employers, mostly the large corporates are completely freed from
their statutory obligations. There are numerous cases where the labour
departments, both in the centre and the states refused to entertain or attend complaints
or industrial disputes raised by the workers of the outsourced agencies on
violation of the Contract Labour (R&A) Act.
Second, Fixed Term Employment
Second, introduction of the system of “fixed term employment” through
amendment of the Rules under Industrial Employment Standing Order Act through
executive order has opened the floodgate of employment of temporary workers in
all organised sector establishments, both in public and private sectors. The
fixed term employment was first introduced during the earlier BJP regime in
2002 despite vehement opposition by all the trade unions in the country.
Subsequently, owing to consistent pressure and persuasion by the trade union
movement, the UPA government had to rescind the notification on “fixed term employment in 2007. But
again, after the new incarnation of the BJP government under Narendra Modi this
atrocious provision has again been introduced in 2017 ignoring the opposition
of the entire trade union movement. As per this provision the employers will be
allowed to employ workers for a fixed term say 6 months or one year and after
the completion of the tenure those workers can be retrenched without any notice
and compensation, unless their tenure is renewed for another fixed term. This
has introduced further fragility in the employment relations keeping the
concerned workers under constant threat of retrenchment or non-renewal of their
tenure.
Although as per rules, workers on fixed term employment are eligible for the same wage as the regular
workers in the concerned establishment, the temporary nature of their
employment and consequent fear of jobloss do not allow them to demand the same
enabling the employers to take advantage of the situation. This phenomenon is
prevalent even in public sector companies. Employees of Alliance Air, a
subsidiary of Air India, who are all on fixed
term employment since last 15 years or so through periodic renewal of their
terms, have been getting much less wages and benefits than the Air India
employees. Similar examples are there in other PSUs and private companies as
well. Even in a PSU like ONGC, highly
skilled workers in on-shore and off-shore exploration jobs are being deployed
on “fixed term employment”. And, after notification of “fixed term employment” last year, reports
are being received from many states on private sector units aggressively
resorting to this route of fixed term
employment while simultaneously retrenching regular workers on one plea or the
other.
Third, NEEM & NETAP
The latest move of ‘temporarising’ the employment
pattern for greater exploitation of labour is through engagement of apprentices
in a big way. The amendment to the Apprentices Act along with introduction of
the National Skill Development Programme titled National Employability Enhancement
Mission (NEEM) and National Employment Through Apprenticeship Programme (NETAP)
is another gift by the BJP government led by Modi to its corporate bosses. These
schemes are being introduced under the camouflage of loud slogans of improving
and advancing the skill-level of country’s youth to ensure greater
employability. But in practice, they are sinister designs to get the workers’
jobs done by apprentices, without any obligation to retain or pay them right
wages and social security benefits and, thereby, make a savings of the
employers on labour cost. As is already being
witnessed in various industries, apprentices are being utilised as workers on
the production lines year after year denying them all benefits of regular
workers. Most of the MNCs are now availing this route of brazen exploitation.
Other private majors have also started making use of this instrument to
accentuate exploitation of workers.
The Project “Ease
of Doing Business”
The picture is becoming abundantly clear. The entire
project of so called “ease of doing
business” is practically aimed at more severe exploitation and loot on
labour who actually keeps the wheel of production and services running. There
is no programme for making power, transport and other industrial raw-materials
and inputs cheaper for the business and industries since all those areas are
separate profit centres for the same private corporate. Hence exploitation of
labour is main life-line of their project of “ease of doing business”.
The BJP government has been working overtime to
facilitate such inhuman exploitation and extraction of sweat and blood of
labour without any hurdles. Their aim is not to allow the workers to organise
in unions and also weaken the trade union movement through introducing extreme
heterogeneity in the composition of workforce within every workplace viz.,
Handful of regular workers, larger number of contract
workers, fixed term employees and apprentices – all doing the same jobs with
widely divergent and different wage and service conditions.
It is a criminal conspiracy that through this process
they want to impose conditions of slavery on the entire workforce.
Part of Neoliberal Drive
This criminal conspiracy of imposing slavery on the working people flows
from the working of the crisis ridden neoliberal capitalist order. Hence our
fight must be directed against the very exploitative neoliberal policies and
their political operators at the helm of governance, whosoever it may be. At
this juncture it is the RSS led BJP government at the centre and in most of the
states. This criminal conspiracy must be thoroughly exposed and squarely
defeated by the working class movement.
Forward to 2
Days Strike to Defeat Design of Imposing Slavery
The two days’ countrywide strike on 8-9 January 2019
called by the united platform of trade unions is aimed at cementing the unity
and determination of the working class to mount stout resistance to this
conspiracy and oust the conspirator class in the governance decisively.
Designs of imposing slavery on the workers and the
people will not pass!
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