The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Monday urged the State government to do away with the amendments made to labour laws at fag end of Assembly session. The amendments were detrimental to the interests of working class and were intended to protect capitalists, said CITU State general secretary M. A. Gafoor.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Gafoor said the State government had a false notion that industry would flourish if working class were suppressed. The government amended the labour laws without a second thought. “Not less than 80 p.c. of the working class will become bonded labour with the amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act. The government amended 25K of the Act facilitating factory managements to appoint and dismiss workers at will,” he said.
The contract workers would not have any rights with amendments made to Contract Workers Act. The workers would be deprived of ‘same pay for same work right’. The amendment was against the spirit of Supreme Court judgment, he said.
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By amending Factories Act, the government changed the definition of factory. Any premises where 10 or more workers were working with aid of power or 20 workers without aid of power used to be called a factory. Now, it was made as 20 workers with aid of power and 40 workers without aid of power. So, lakhs of small units would be exempted from the purview of Factories Act, he said.