NEXT MONTH'S Indian Labour Conference (ILC) is expected to be a stormy affair as major trade unions are upset over the way the Government had bypassed them in taking crucial decisions on labour and functioning of the unions.
In the past two weeks, the Government has cleared a Bill that would make the registration of new unions fairly difficult, if not impossible. The Government has also announced an "improved" voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for employees of the 240 public sector undertakings without eliciting the views of the unions
The two decisions, with long-term implications for the working class, came even as the unions were awaiting a decision on the frequency of wage revision agreements. The public sector employees had observed a nationwide strike since the Government could not firmly assure that it would revert to the system of five-yearly agreements on wage revision.
The unions wondered how the Government would "finance" the VRS if it had not been able to clear the earlier payments that were due to the PSU workers. Over Rs 2,000 crore were due to the workers in the shape of Provident Fund and other statutory dues. The workers who had accepted VRS earlier had not received their full payments so far.
The port and dockworkers had also observed strike for a number of days on the wage revision issue, pleading that the 10-year frequency of wage revision should be discarded. As their expectations of an early settlement had not come true, they have been considering another strike. Last month's Standing Labour Committee (SLC), which has convened the apex ILC meet on April 10-11, devoted considerable time on the public sector employees' demands. The SLC had recommended the group of Ministers considering the demands should submit its report in two months.
The Bill to amend the Trade Union Act has stipulated that no new union would be registered unless it enjoyed membership of 10 per cent employees of an organisation. At present a group of seven workers can register a new union. The Government's move is aimed at curbing the multiplicity of trade unions, but the unions feel the stipulation could strangulate trade union movement.
The unions have declared they would raise the issues at the ILC. They maintain the Government had constituted the second National Labour Commission to "rationalise" the labour laws. It appeared the Government had no patience to await the Commission's report and wanted to hurry up with the new laws. The Government has gone ahead with "evolving" the new legislation that was in tune with the new economic scenario - after entrusting the job to the Labour Commission.
The ILC is the highest tripartite body that brings together representatives of the Government, employers and the employees so that a national consensus was evolved on national labour issues. The trade unions have been complaining the Government had devalued the role of labour and Central Ministers holding key economic portfolios were keeping away from the ILC.
Labour Minister Satyanarayan Jatia urged Prime Minister Vajpayee at a recent labour awards function that he should attend the ILC.
Some unions agreed with the view that the multiplicity of unions should be curbed, but they differed on the methodology to be adopted for the purpose.
