Central trade unions boycott tripartite meeting on labour code on safety, health

The central trade unions have boycotted a scheduled tripartite meeting on labour code on occupational safety, health and working conditions, organised by the Labour Ministry on Thursday.

In a letter to Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Gangwar, the trade unions said they had received a mail signed by the under secretary of the ministry about the tripartite consulting meeting on November 20 afternoon and have decided to boycott it.

"We are constrained to convey to you that the tripartite consultation exercise with the stakeholders has been practically reduced to a ritualism, which the central trade unions cannot put up with," they said in the letter.

The central trade unions have opposed the move of the government to integrate 13 different laws relating to labour into one, which they said should be industry specific and not generalised.

"It will not be possible for us to respond to your call for tripartite consultation on a 70-page voluminous draft within such a short notice of less than one-and-half day," added the central trade unions -- INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.

The letter proposing the tripartite meeting to be held on November 22 was signed on November 9, but it reached to the unions on November 20, they alleged.

The trade unions also alleged that the largest trade union, INTUC, had not been invited to the meeting