CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS DEMAND URGENT
INTERVENTION BY THE LABOUR MINISTER
INTUC
AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC SEWA
AICCTU LPF UTUC
Date: 1.04.2020
To
Shri Santosh Gangwar
The Minister for Labour and
Employment,
Govt. of India
Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg
New Delhi - 110001
Sir,
We the Central Trade Unions would
like to draw your attention to the complaints/information/grievances being
received by us from the workers, employees and our unions from all over India.
On our part we are doing whatever possible at our level in
contacting the concerned officials of various government/state enterprises/institutions/industries/sectors
and the state & local administration for the redressal. Our unions and
activists are also involved in the relief work despite constraints of movement.
However we are bringing to your
notice for seeking your immediate intervention at your level.
At the outset we would like to
point out that we had raised several issues in our joint letter addressed to
the Prime Minister on 26th March 2020 (letter attached) . We
had demanded immediate announcement of strong
statutory enforceable measures to arrest and put a ban on the ongoing spree of
retrenchments, wage cut, forced unpaid leave etc being perpetrated by the
employers on the workers, particularly contract/casual/temporary/fixed term
workers in various establishments, particularly in private sector throughout
the country to be enforced both by central and state governments. We are still regularly getting information of
forced unpaid leave etc. including from NCR region. Appeal/Advisory
by the Govt, both the Labour Ministry
and Home Ministry is not at all working at ground level to prevent loss of
employment and earnings and also eviction from local residence in the process
of lock down. We had detailed the demands about the immediate packages
for various sectors of workers.
The experience of the past seven
days unfortunately bears out our apprehensions. We give some instances:
Employees
manning essential services run in the public/government sector being stopped
and detained by the police, in spite of their holding valid Identity
Cards issued by the concerned authorities, the contract/outsourced workers
mostly not being provided any protective gear. Even the ASHA and Anganwadi
workers who are working in the frontline in combating Corona are being tortured
and manhandled in various states by Police and local miscreants with impunity.
A vast number of workers, not even
registered in any of the welfare boards and for whose benefit the Government
claims to be putting in place the Social Security Code, suddenly find
themselves without work, without any support system to feed them and cut off
far away from their native places. There are reports pouring in from all the
States that workers’ services are being dispensed with in total disregard of
the “Advisory” by the Secretary Ministry of Labour and also by Home Secretary.
The government has not mobilized any
machinery to transport grain supplies in their Godowns to various rationing
outlets in States. Restriction on inter-state transport movement made the
situation difficult further. Hoarding is rampant and the prices of essential
commodities are shooting up which is causing further hardship to the working
people.
We urge you to impress upon the
concerned departments to deal with those seeking opportunity in this hour
of crisis or being callous to the plight of the masses, by enforcing the
message of government advisories, to ensure that everyone has the means to feed
himself/herself.
The migrant workers
are in deep distress with no work, no money and removal from their work places and
in many cases eviction from the rented accommodations, and have nothing to
depend upon for stay and food and are desperately attempting to
reach back to their home facing police highhandedness. Due to sudden lock down,
the rail and road transport shutdown, they are walking on highways hundreds of miles, some of them along with
their families including small children. Many of them are stopped/detained,
insulted and humiliated by police particularly on the inter-state borders and
are now staying under the sky midway. And above this, there are reports of deaths due to accidents and
hardships.
We urge you that the government
must act urgently to rescue them with necessary transport facilities and they
should be provided with food, shelter water and required health services. This is in line with the
directions/advisories issued by the Home Secretary to all state govts. But
Central Govt also must take the responsibilities to facilitate implementation
of their own advisories/directions.
Please also ensure that all the
unorganized workforce, registered and un registered, the
daily/casual/contract/outsourced and piece rated home based workers, agriculture workers, MGNREGA and scheme
workers including ASHA, Mid day meal, Anganwadi and others in such a category, those who are truck drivers and helpers,
coolies/porters/loaders unloaders, construction & beedi workers, the
domestic workers, waste pickers, self employed as
hawkers-vendors, rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw/auto/taxi drivers etc. are
covered for the cash and ration relief at the earliest. Public Distribution
System be used effectively and universally for all these needy people. Opening
of procurement centers for the farm produce near to villages and towns could
also help the accessibility to the producers and buyers. A comprehensive
income-support scheme for all the unorganized/informal sector workers is the urgent
need of the hour and we urge the Govt to urgently act upon the same to save
overwhelming majority of the country’s workforce from biggest human disaster. Bank
branches in some cases are 40 – 50 kilometer from the place of workers/their
families, hence the other methods of disbursal of cash transfer should
also be devised.
The ESIC hospitals and
dispensaries be furnished with all necessary protective equipments for the safety
of medical, paramedical, safai karamcharis and other staff while giving their
services. The necessary inputs of medical facilities be taken care off.
They should also be considered for insurance cover.
In view of the ever-growing scale and spread of the problems of these
workers particularly migrant workers, and the trade unions being in the thick
of things we request you to ask the counterparts in ministry of
labour in respective states to communicate and coordinate with all the
trade unions in their states including
formation of trade union committees and issuing valid passes to office bearers
of trade unions for addressing the above mentioned issues including their
participation in relief work.
INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC SEWA AICCTU LPF UTUC
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