The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) on Friday strongly condemned the suspension and dilution of key labour laws by some states, saying the "draconian measures" are aimed at depriving workers of their rights.
The union has sought immediate withdrawal of "draconian" decisions by the states.
Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have decided to stay labour laws for three years and also announced a series of changes to give a boost to investments hit by COVID-19.
Joining the league, Gujarat too eased some labour laws and also increased working hours from 8 to 12 hours.
"AITUC strongly condemns the move of some state governments to take away labour rights of workers and demands that black laws should be withdrawn," an AITUC statement said.
The union further said that it strongly opposes the decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to bring in a "draconian ordinance titled 'Uttar Pradesh Temporary Exemption for Certain Labour Laws Ordinance 2020' under the guise of need for facilitating economic activities".
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It said that in one stroke 38 laws aremade defunct for 1,000 days (almost three years).
"The remaining are only section 5 of Payment of Wages Act, 1934, Construction Workers Act, 1996, Compensation Act, 1993 and Bonded Labour Act, 1976 which remain functional."
Those laws made defunct include Industrial Dispute Act, Act on Occupational Safety and Health, Contract labour act, grant Labour Act, Equal Remuneration Act etc, it added.
The union said that the Madhya Pradesh government has brought drastic changes in Factories Act, Contract Act and Industrial Dispute Act in a manner where the employers will be at will to hire and fire the labour.
It said that with the changes, the dispute raising will become non starter, the contractors will have no compulsion to obtain licence for supplying labour up to 49 persons and no inspection will be allowed without prior permissions.
All these changes mean that the workers are to be used as bonded labour without any rights for sheer exploitation in the interest of capital without any guarantee of wages, safety and healthcare, social security, it added.
The Gujarat government, it said, has blatantly taken illegal decision of increasing workinghours from 8 to 12 hours, but no payment for extra working hours, it said.
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh governments have given clean chit in regard to raising working hours as per need of the employers, it added.
It is of the view that these draconian measures are not only to further the sheer exploitation of the workers without their rights for raising any dispute over proper wages, safety at work place and guaranteeof social security etc, but also to kill their soul.
"Indian working class is being pushed back into British Era and we the trade unions resolve to fight back with all our might," it added.
The AITUC has also demanded compensation from the Railways Minsitry to the tune of Rs 50 lakh each to families of deceased workers in the accident in Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Similar compensation should be given to those workers who died of such accidents while walking to their homes in absence of any travel facilities due to lockdown, it added.
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