CLAIM

On the occasion of the passing of the labour codes in September 2020 Prime Minister Modi tweeted ‘The new labour codes universalise minimum wages and timely payment of wages. They give priority to occupational safety of the workers. These reforms will contribute to a better working environment, which will accelerate the pace of economic growth. These labour reforms will ensure ‘Ease of Doing Business’

TRUTH

The labour codes enacted by Modi government are meant to ensure ‘Ease of Doing Business’ for the big corporates by attacking the existing hard won basic rights of the workers.

The Code on Wages has replaced the Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal Remuneration Act which ensured fixation of minimum wage, calculation of bonus, timely payment of wages, other remunerations linked to wages etc.

The Modi govt has refused to even consider raising minimum wages to a level accepted earlier and sanctioned by the Indian Labour Conference and Supreme Court while, on its part, the trade unions are agitating for a minimum wage of 26,000/- per month for unskilled workers.

This code does not ensure minimum wages for workers in the unorganised workers. The Modi government fixed the ‘floor wage’ at Rs 176/- in 2017 and in 2023 it remains at Rs. 178/- an increase of just 2/-. 

Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions

This Code legalises blatant violation of statutory workplace rights of the workers. The contract workers and the migrant workers are the worst to be affected. The Inter State Migrant Workmen’s Act that provided some protection to the migrant workers, whose plight came to light during the Covid related lockdown, is one of the laws subsumed i.e. it no longer exists and all of its protective provisions have been diluted or omitted in the Code.

Code on Industrial Relations

This Code deprives workers of their basic rights to organisation and collective action.   In addition, fragile employment like fixed term employment, contract work etc. is promoted and serious changes have been made in the character of employment relations. Thus, while overall exploitation is increased, workers performing the same job at the workplace are divided by subjecting them to different wages and working conditions.  This hinders their unionisation and collective actions.

Code on Social security:

This Code does not propose any specific benefits for the workers. The necessary resources for any social security scheme are not provided. Large sections of workers like beedi, iron ore mines, mica mines, limestone mines and dolomite mines workers who were earlier covered by specific laws that provided social security benefits to them have now been deprived of these since those laws have been subsumed by this Code. Cess collection to fund their social security has been abandoned with the introduction of GST. In the case of the construction workers, the provisions related to cess under the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Fund Act and the grievance redress mechanism have been highly diluted.

The Code has laid the foundation for dismantling schemes like EPF and ESI. The demand for gratuity has also been ignored.

The introduction of these Codes will seriously impact the conditions of work of workers in the organised sector and will make the livelihood and lives of contract workers even more precarious.

Jobs and working conditions

Employment in manufacturing fell as a share of total employment from 12.85 in 2012 to 11.5 per cent in 2018 and managed to regain the 2012 level only in 2022 which means that it is below that of Bangladesh (16 per cent).

Permanent employment in central public sector enterprises has declined by 2.7 lakhs between 2013 and 2022. The number of contract and outsourced workers has increased from 19 per cent to 42.5 per cent in the same period.

Employment in Government and the public sector at 3.8 per cent as per ILO data is among the lowest in India. In Argentina it is 16.9 per cent, Brazil 12.3 per cent, China 28 per cent, USA 13.3 per cent, UK 21.5 per cent, Russia 40.6 per cent and Cuba 77 per cent

The staff strength in public sector banks has declined by nearly 1 lakh between 2014 and 2023 while the number of Bank Mitras or business correspondents who are not recognised as employees has gone up to over 35 lakhs or more than four times that of permanent bank employees.

The staff strength in private sector banks more than doubled during the same period, from 33,5615 in 2014 to 74,5612 in 2023. Needless to say, there is no reservation applicable in the private sector or in contractual jobs.

Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy’s (CMIE) October 2023 figures reveal that there has been a decrease of 1.03 crore daily wage labourers in small shops and the number of salaried workers has decreased by 46 lakh.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-23 carried out by the government, the average daily wage of a casual worker is just Rs. 403 which would translate to Rs. 12,075 per month if he or she gets work for all 30 days.

Male casual workers earn Rs. 12,990 while female workers get only Rs. 8,385 per month. In the self-employed category, the average earning is Rs. 13,131 per month, with men getting an average of Rs.15,197 while self-employed women earn just Rs. 5,516.

Regular wage or salary earners get Rs. 19,492 per month on average, with men earning Rs. 20,666 and women Rs. 15,722.

These are abysmal income levels. It must be noted that only 21 per cent of workers are regular or salaried employees. Of the remaining, the bulk (57 per cent) are self employed and 22 per cent are casual workers. This data also highlights the persistent difference in wages of men and women.

Unorganised sector workers

Nothing is being done to give any relief to the vast numbers of unorganised sector workers.  As per the Economic Survey, 2021-22, the total number of people working in the unorganised sector was around 43.99 crores during 2019-20. They are working in the most ill-paid, dangerous jobs without any legal framework to protect them.

Workers in brick kilns, in construction work and in sanitation do not get access to protective gear of any kind. Every year sees multiple deaths of sanitation workers who are sent to unclog sewer lines and manholes. Since most of them are temporary employees, compensation is often not paid. Ironically, as way of compensation, a member of the deceased worker’s family is given his job, passing on the worst kind of exploitation from generation to generation.

Minimum Wage

Workers have been struggling for their demand of increasing minimum wages all through the Modi era but the government has adopted a most callous and indifferent attitude.

Despite the recommendations of the Indian Labour Conference, the Modi government refused to enhance the minimum wage for both agricultural workers and industrial/service sector workers.

The government wants to please the corporate sections – domestic and foreign – by keeping wages low, and it has introduced the new Codes to facilitate easy hire and fire for the benefit of employers.

SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF THE WORKING CLASS!  DEFEAT BJP!

Published by Communist Party of India (Marxist)