The claim that Labour Codes are for benefit of workers is a farce: Union leader Amarjeet Kaur

The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and Sectoral Federations have decided to go on a nationwide strike on February 12 to protest against the recently notified Labour Codes. Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), explains the reasons behind their longstanding opposition to these laws and says the Codes are pro-employer with provisions to weaken trade unions.

Edited excerpts:

Trade unions have for long opposed the Labour Codes…

Yes, a key concern that the trade unions have always raised with the government is that there have been no face-to-face consultations on the Codes, despite our repeated requests. The Code on Wages was enacted in 2019 and the other three Codes were introduced in the Parliament during the Covid pandemic. The Opposition had walked out. Later, our suggestion to the Standing Committee on Labour was also ignored. We had repeatedly urged the government to call the Indian Labour Conference to enable tripartite discussions between employers, trade unions and the government on the Codes, but this has not happened till date. The government’s claim that they have held consultations is incorrect. Employers and employees were never made to sit together to discuss the Codes.

The Codes are anti-workers. The formal sector workforce is just 6-7% and even now informal sector workers are 93% of India’s total labour force. How will the Codes address the informal sector workers? There is no discussion on that, several workers are in fact being excluded from the Codes. The focus is on ease of doing business. The Codes are pro-employer with provisions to weaken trade unions. The claim that the Codes are for workers’ benefit is a farce.

What are the key concerns trade unions have on the Codes?

The Code on Wages, 2019, has introduced the concept of national floor wage, ignoring the recommendation of the Satpathy Committee of Rs 375 per day. All the Schedules for minimum wage for informal sector have been removed in the Code and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) standards have been ignored. There is no concept of a living wage. Employers are worried about the change in definition of wages and lower take home salary of workers.

The Code on Industrial Relations, 2020, has weakened trade union representation by putting conditionalities on registration of trade unions and their recognition. It is an attack on workers’ rights to unionise and be represented before the management. It is making striking work almost impossible. Working hours can be 8-12 hours per day. This goes against everything trade unions fought for to get eight hours of work, eight hours of family time and eight hours of rest for workers. This, too, is against the ILO convention. The threshold for retrenchment without approvals has been increased to more than 300 from 100 earlier. Nearly 70% of India’s factories have between 100 and 300 workers and those workers will now be unprotected.

The conciliation proceedings are being changed and labour courts are being replaced with tribunals. Inspections are being scrapped and the concept of facilitators has been introduced. They are facilitators for employers not for workers.

Even the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) deals with facilitators. There is no uniform definition of employer and worker across the Codes. OSH Code will be applicable to establishments with 10 workers or more. So roughly 93% of workers will not be covered under basic safety compliance. The threshold for getting a factory licence has been increased. Provisions like mandatory employment letters have always been there but have never been implemented.

The Code on Social Security claims to have made social security universal. But all laws on social security have been clubbed under it. There is a system of contribution and financing for existing social security schemes for various sectors. There is no clarity on how it will function. Even for gig workers, there is no clarity on their social security contributions apart from providing that 1-2% of the annual turnover of aggregators will be contributed. A 2% cess is also collected for construction workers, but that is not being disbursed.

For long, it has been said that labour reforms will improve the country’s investment climate by lowering the compliance burden and lead to more jobs in turn. What are your thoughts on this?

This is a mirage. The government claims that it wants more formalisation in the labour workforce. In reality, it is bringing fixed-term employment, which is informal work. There will be no unions and the fixed-term worker does not know if he will become a permanent employee or not. At this juncture, globally, there is a race for investments. As a result, corporates are dictating their demands. Labour Codes are a demand of international companies that wish to invest in India. Globally, there is no example where the government has tightened labour laws, created a crisis-like situation and yet, industry has flourished. There are plenty of examples where with good relations between labour unions and employers, and social dialogue, businesses have flourished. It is a falsehood that with foreign investment our workers will benefit. How much FDI has come into the country in the last 10 years? It has been negligible.

Several states have amended their own laws to bring in the Labour Code reforms. Did trade unions protest against them?

In the last 10 years, we have fought several times against states on the Labour Codes. We have asked state governments not to frame rules for these Codes. Largely, BJP-ruled states have notified some rules. The government has said it will frame rules afresh.