Thousands of demonstrators today staged a protest called by 11 major trade unions to press Union government to implement their 10-point demands including payment of minimum wages of Rs 10,000 per month and reversal of "anti-people" economic policies.
Slamming the Centre's economic and labour policies as being "anti-people", union leaders demanded that the government should take immediate steps to control inflation, put immediate ban on giving contractual jobs to workers and pass directions for compulsory registration of trade unions within a period of 45 days after filing application.
The protest was organised at Jantar Mantar by CITU, backed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), BMS (Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh), the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and others.
A delegation of these unions will meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today and submit a memorandum.
In the memorandum, the unions have demanded that he (the prime minister) should immediately comply with his assurances given during 45th session of Indian Labour Conference on May 17, 2013.
"We have been pursuing our demands for the last two years and held a two-day strike in February. While Manmohan Singh assured us that steps will be taken to fulfil our demands, but so far nothing has come out of it," said Harbhajan Singh, General Secretary, Hind Mazdoor Sabha.
