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Labour laws being violated, says Gurudas Dasgupta

PALAKKAD: All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta, MP, has said that multiplicity of the trade unions in the country has prevented the working class from putting up a strong and united struggle against the anti-working class and anti-farmer policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre.

Inaugurating the Kerala conference of the AITUC at Town Hall here on Saturday, Mr. Dasgupta said the Manmohan Singh government was implementing a capitalist development policy where the capitalists and monopolists were given a free hand to violate labour and other laws.

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was a result of that policy where the labour laws were not implemented. Multinational companies were not ready to implement the law of the land. When the issue was taken up with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh expressed his inability to do anything because that would scare away foreign investment.

He said the UPA government was shifting to the right in its economic, political and cultural policies. The government wanted to pass a law in Parliament in which factories that had less than 300 workers would not be brought under the purview of the Industrial Disputes Act. Thus 70 per cent of the workers would be out of the purview of the Industrial Disputes Act. Hence it was at the cost of the workers that they wanted to open the economy for free capitalist development, he said.

Thus the policies of globalisation and liberalisation had hit the workers very hard. The workers were thrown out of employment, wage cut was imposed and trade union rights were not allowed. In the unorganised sector where 96 per cent of the work force was present, they were not allowed to organise.

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