SALEM: The State unit of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions has undertaken a door-to-door survey in Tamil Nadu to collect details on household workers for bringing them under the umbrella of the unorganised stream.

State general secretary A. Soundararajan said this move would throw light on the nature of their household jobs, wages and living conditions. "Their names will be enrolled in the CITU. After preparing a detailed document based on the study, we will put forward suggestions for their welfare to the Government," he said while addressing reporters here on Sunday.

Calling upon the Tamil Nadu Government to ensure that information technology firms, auto majors and other multinational companies implement labour laws, Mr. Soundararajan said that only a healthy labour-friendly environment could lead to good economic development. Many IT majors, he said, were averse to labourers' rights for `collective bargaining' and trade unionism. These firms were also reluctant to implement the Minimum Wages Act and did not honour the rights ensured in the Constitution for employees. The State, he said, should ensure "these rights" to the employees of IT firms or else a `labour outburst' would occur in Tamil Nadu too, he warned.

"Abolish camp wages"

Calling the Department of Labour `inactive,' he asked the State Government to abolish the `camp wages' that placed teenaged girls under contract system in cotton mills. They were paid just meagre wages of Rs. 30 a day and after three years, would be terminated from services. "They are literally bonded labourers and the CITU has taken the issue to the International Labour Organisation," he said.

Mr. Soundararajan expressed dismay over labour officials' directive to workers, particularly construction industry people, who wanted to become members in Unorgansied Sectors' Welfare Board, to submit medical certificates declaring that they had not been afflicted either by AIDS or cancer. "This inhuman practice being should immediately be stopped," he said.

He was here to attend the two-day CITU's Salem district conference, which concluded on Sunday.

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