Too much should not be made of the Centre of Indian Trade Union's (CITU) decision to start a trade union in the IT industry in West Bengal, and then to take it to other states as and when possible. Forming a trade union to get better wages and working conditions is a democratic right and, as the state's CITU president has said, forming a union should not automatically mean a strike is round the corner. In any case, with the job market so tight and expected to remain that way for the foreseeable future, thanks to the difference in western and Indian salaries, employees have the upper hand anyway, even without the benefit of collective bargaining. There is hardly an employer in the IT/ITeS business today who will not increase salaries or improve working conditions to retain and attract employees. The real issue that worries employers is the inability to terminate workers for non-performance or for business exigencies, and the inordinate time it takes to get permission to shut down units. But since IT/ITeS units are all relatively young, and most employees are on fixed-period contracts, this is a problem that the industry is unlikely to be affected by. So, it is unclear what CITU hopes to achieve, apart from creating a foothold in an area where it has little or no representation. | |
| That, in fact, should be reason to worry. If there is no felt need for a trade union in this sector, then what does CITU intend to do in order to make itself appear relevant? It does not help that, while reacting to the move, the West Bengal unit of the CPI(M), to whom CITU is affiliated, called for a level playing field. "Bengal should not suffer. If the association is limited to the state," senior CPI(M) member Benoy Konar is quoted as having said, "it can trigger a flight of capital." So he has recommended that CITU should gain a foothold in the IT/ITeS business in other states as well. That is, if the CITU union forces firms in the state to close down, it should do the same to units in Gurgaon and Bangalore as well""once this is done, the argument goes, West Bengal's IT/ITeS units will not be at any particular disadvantage vis-à-vis those in other parts of the country! |
| |
| A taste of what is to come can be had from the West Bengal CITU chief, who has spoken about how some IT/ITeS units have not taken the labour department's permission to work 24x7, and declared that no employee should be compelled to work more than 48 hours a week. The first is a procedural technicality, the second comes up against the fact that if any employee is indeed being forced to work unacceptably long hours, s/he can take up alternative jobs that are available in plenty. What is noteworthy is the point that the spirit of all this is against the West Bengal chief minister's decision to declare the IT industry an essential service. That is what has encouraged many IT/ITeS units to come to West Bengal; it is now possible that CITU will drive them away. If history repeats itself in this manner, the losers will once again be the youth of the state. |
| |
|
| |
