The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘SEZs will widen regional disparities’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 08, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘SEZs will widen regional disparities’

Nagesh Prabhu

‘Setting up of SEZs will increase social conflicts’
Concern over violation of trade union rights in Asia

BANGALORE: Not a day passes without protests against setting up special economic zones (SEZs) in the country. The SEZs, which are being promoted by the Government to attract investment, will widen regional disparities within States and will reduce land available for farming, according to Guy Ryder, general secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), that has 18 million members worldwide.

In an interview to The Hindu during his recent visit to Bangalore, Mr. Ryder said the establishment of SEZs would lead to discrimination against non-SEZ industrial units. Many SEZs have been established in those areas where all kinds of infrastructure is available. The SEZs denied workers the right to organise and bargain collectively. Such labour practices were not in conformity with the spirit and principles of International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. Nearly 150 SEZs have been approved in the country and many more are in the pipeline.

“By denying the right to organise, the multinational corporations are denying the right to combat poverty, exploitation, promotion of economic justice, democracy and peace,” said Mr. Ryder, who earlier served in International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and ILO.

The establishment of SEZs would increase social conflicts and landlessness among vast sections of the people as three-fourth of the workers are engaged in informal economy and a majority of them are women. In many developing countries, including India, he says “new poor” are born on account of labour shedding in the government sector, closure of firms and introduction of voluntary retirement scheme to downsize the staff.

Referring to the ill-effects of liberalisation, he said the neo-liberal policies have created a new division of labour in the global economy, which calls for penetration of labour union movement into knowledge and IT sectors. One of the challenges before the trade union movement is “to penetrate the knowledge and IT sectors and ensure no exploitation of workers takes place in these spheres.”

“Be it the BT or the IT sector, no industry should be outside the jurisdiction of labour legislation,” the ITUC general secretary said.

Mr. Ryder, who expressed serious concern at the blatant violation of trade union rights in many countries in the Asia region, said the ITUC decided to launch an intensive campaign to promote ratification of ILO core conventions and their effective implementation.

The organisation would focus on the need to develop a coordinated international response to the deteriorating situation in Myanmar.

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