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Eleventh Plan compromises on social security: Pandhe

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The Eleventh Five Year Plan is gearing the economy towards growth in trade at the cost of development and social security issues, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) president M.K. Pandhe said.

Speaking to reporters on discussions held on the fourth day of CITU's national conference here on Saturday, he said the Plan did not address questions such as creation of new jobs or health security. The 45-member committee, constituted by the Planning Commission to discuss the Plan, had only one representative from the workers' union as against seven from managements of industries. "One of the principal demands made in the first meeting of the committee was allowing a hire-and-fire system," said Mr. Pandhe, who is the lone union representative on the committee. "These are issues of serious concern not just to the CITU but to the entire working class." The government should consult all trade unions before finalising the Plan, he demanded.

The conference expressed concern over the question of Special Economic Zones (SEZ). Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had stated that the country would lose Rs. 9,000 crore a year because of tax exemption to SEZs.

Workers in these zones would be denied their fundamental rights and nothing short of "jungle law" would prevail there, he said.

"Exploitation zones"

Simon Steyne of the British Trade Union Congress, also a member of the governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), condemned tax exemptions to companies in SEZs and denying workers their rights.

"These cannot become free zones of exploitation," he said.

In the neo-liberal economy where capital and labour moves freely, there should be global laws governing the rights of workers, he said.

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