Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Unorganised workers oppose merging of labour boards

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI NOV. 28. The Central and State Governments plan to amalgamate labour boards into a single unit will create a huge bureaucracy and wipe out the voice of workers, said R. Geetha, adviser to the Unorganised Workers Federation.

``A single board cannot handle the 36 crore unorganised workers in India. It is simply unworkable,'' said Ms. Geetha. ``It will undo all the good work that the State boards had been doing till now.''

The federation members staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorates in 17 districts. In Chennai, they took out a procession from the Munroe Statue to the Government Guest House. Later, a petition highlighting a 12-point charter of demands was submitted to the Governor P.S. Ramamohan Rao.

The federation requested that tripartite boards with two-third representation from employers and workers and one-third women be constituted to regulate employment and ensure provision of minimum wages.

``The provisions of the Central Bill for Unorganised Workers does not deal with regulation of employment of unorganised workers and has no provision for protection of jobs,'' said K. Anandan, a federation member.

Another representation was that domestic work, childcare and service in places of worship be added to the Bill's list of occupations and minimum wages decided for these jobs.

``When more than 90 per cent of the women workforce is employed in domestic labour, it is unfair to neglect their services,'' said R. Leelavathy, another member.

With spiralling sand and cement prices adversely affecting construction workers, the federation requested a ban on use of labour displacing machines. They also requested the State Government to step in and control the price of construction material.

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