Despite trade union's opposition, Centre to go ahead with labour law amendments

Minister meets union leaders who warn him of confrontation ahead; Dattatreya says amendments to be taken up in coming Parliament session

The Union government is going ahead with the pending labour law amendments in the coming session (from next Tuesday) of Parliament, despite strong opposition from trade unions.

“The amendments are long-pending issues which the previous government couldn’t sort out…. We have already passed the Apprentices Act in the Lok Sabha…. The amendments that have been moved earlier will continue,” said Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

He’d also invited representatives of central trade unions to meet him on Wednesday, the first one since his recent assumption of the office. “The trade unions expressed some reservations about (the) labour law changes. I told them that the dialogue will continue and the gap between trade unions and our ministry will not increase,” said Dattatreya.

The TUs, including the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is aligned with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, gave him a joint memorandum. They said they’d proceed with their planned nationwide protest on December 5.

The Union government had introduced amendments to the Factories Act, Apprentices Act and Labour Laws (Exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments) Act during the previous parliamentary session. The Apprentices Act was passed in the Lok Sabha and is yet to be cleared in the Rajya Sabha.  The Factories Act was introduced in the Lok Sabha and the Labour Laws Act in the Rajya Sabha; these are yet to be passed.

All the proposed amendments had been strongly criticised by the TUs as “anti labour”. They noted they’d not been consulted at any stage.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of the pro-CPI(M) Centre of Indian Trade Unions, said: “We said there will be conflict in the manner in which you are going ahead with the labour law changes. If the government supports harmonious relations, it should reverse these decisions.”

Otherwise, there will be discontent and agitation,” said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the pro-CPI(M) Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

Sen said Dattatreya assured the unions of more frequent meetings with him and of protecting the interest of workers.

The TUs had also opposed the labour law changes made by the Rajasthan government and the similar ones proposed by the Madhya Pradesh government (both these are run by the Bharatiya Janata Party, now also in charge at the Centre).

The unions said in their memorandum that the previous Union minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, had given them a favourable assurance on the Rajasthan laws but this wasn't implemented. President Pranab Mukherjee had, on the central government's recommendation, recently given his assent to the Rajasthan government's amendments to the Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act and Contract Labour Act.